Sustainable Halloween

Thursday, October 28th, 2021

Halloween is around the corner and I’m planning on making it the sustainable Halloween ever.

I don’t like how much unnecessary waste we produce collectively during this celebration. The single use plates and cups, packaging, decorations – they all go to the landfill after a short evening fun. And don’t forget about the excess consumerism with a lot of cheap plastic rubbish and a lot of junk food. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can be more mindful about how we celebrate Halloween.

I brainstormed around the problematic areas when we celebrating this day: Candy (of course), Costumes, Decorations, and Party food.

Table of Contents

Decoration

I like scary decoration but decorating for Halloween shouldn’t be scary for the environment!

Lots of plastic halloween decoration is a problematic part of the waste problem. Don’t get me wrong, we have plastic decorations like a skeleton and some pumpkins we bought a couple of years ago, we are using them over and over and I’m making sure, that they will last. But we don’t want to buy any new plastic stuff. So…

Why not getting creative by upcycling what you have at home: collect some tin cans and make lanterns and/or ghosts, paint some beer bottles with pumpkin faces, make glass jar light holders and paint them, make natural confetti from fallen leaves, dress up scarecrows, make bedsheet ghosts from old sheets and of course reuse decoration you already have.

Avoid cheap, plastic Pound Shop decoration, balloons and letting lanterns go. Use natural decoration, like carving and displaying pumpkin lantern, autumnal fallen leaves, pine cones, stick and twigs. Make your own buntings or crocheted decoration.

If you buy something look for decoration that are upcycled, recycled or made from environmentally friendly materials.

You can check out local farmers markets or Etsy for hand-crafted eco-friendly decorations.

Costumes

Since we moved to the US I like to dress up again. The dress you see in the picture is actually the only costume I ever bought for me and I will make sure that it will hold for a long time.

Unfortunately most costumes are purchased and used only once before being discarded. Plus they are commonly made from non-recyclable synthetic materials, made who knows where by who knows who.

So don’t buy a brand new costume, especially not each year for every member of the family. Check the local thrift shops and Ebay they are usually very good places to find Halloween costumes. Found a cape for my sons Vampire costume at Goodwill.

Renting or borrowing a costume is also a good option. I’m sure many people would love to loan or even give you an old costume. You could organize a costume swap with family members and friends – or even in the kids’ school/class. And then pass on your kids costume to the little ones.

Use what you already have! Perhaps you can put together a costume with clothing you have in your closet. Have a tan trench coat? Boom you are a detective. Or get crafty and make it yourself. There are so many videos and tutorials. Just because you don’t know how to do something now doesn’t mean you can’t learn it at all.

If you think that won’t work, be on the lookout for a local artists making handmade costumes. This way your money gets back into the local economy, you know who made your clothing, and your will have a truly unique piece to make Halloween that much more magical.

When it comes to makeup, stick to non-toxic products only, and avoid the cheap, toxic stuff, or even look online for recipes to make your own face paints.

Tell me your favorite Halloween costume you ever wore in the comments! Do you have any Zero Waste Halloween Costumes you’ve made?

Trick or treating

I didn’t find a perfect solution here! Finding Zero Waste treats for Halloween almost seems like an impossible task.

Did you know that Americans consume nearly 600 million pounds of Halloween candy per year? Imagine the millions and millions of individually packed plastic wrapped (probably unethically produced) sweets made with pure sugar (and most of the time unsustainable palm oil). What a crazy amount of waste. That plastic will outlive you and all the kids you hand it out to, filling our landfills and water.

Furthermore, the candy you give out might be made with stuff that you would never let your own children eat – so why give it out to the neighbors? I know, that a lot of the stuff my son will bring home, won’t be eaten by him.

I made a list with sustainable Halloween Alternatives, like small glass jars filled with chocolate pieces or sweets from the Bulk store, or paper bags with biscuits… But with our C-Situation still going on, I’m not sure if this is a good idea.

Then I was thinking about to perhaps offer the choice of a non-food treat, like homemade play dough, Halloween rock paintings, little wooden toys, or I could even picking up some cheap second hand toys in charity shops. But most of the kids probably expect candy.

So, I made the next list with eco-friendly candy, like Unreal Candy (they even have special halloween candy), Chocolate Bite, the mini version of endangered species chocolates or Alter Eco candies, just to name my favorites.

Like I said, I don’t have a solution!

I am not going to tell you to stop letting your kids do trick-or-treat or avoid passing out candy. Why? Because it is a wonderful and fun Holiday (and I love it). But I am asking you to rethink it. And to find ways to make your Halloween a sustainable one or at least more sustainable.

I’ll probably just try a combination of the above and see how it goes.

Oh, don’t forget to reuse your buckets from last year, or make your own from old sheets, shopping bags, or paper bags.

Partyfood

I am honest with you, I could throw up because we produce so much waste at parties.

So, why we don’t celebrate Halloween without following the same traditions as before and creating new rituals for ourselves and our families to reduce our impact during this fun holiday?

Homemade food is the most eco-friendly and with a little effort you can make your own party food that looks spooky but tastes delicious.

How about a spooky pumpkin spiced cake and cookies shaped like bats instead of having a lot of plastic-wrapped snacks? Jalapeño Mummies, mummy fingers of cheese, stuffed peppers looking like jack o lanterns or Frankenstein’s monster, and you can even serve food made with the pumpkin carvings like pumpkin soup. Make spooky cocktails that look like blood with cherry, cranberry or tomato juice. You get the idea and you know Pinterest has you covered!

Offer buffet food so people can eat as much as they want and hopefully this way they waste less as well. And ask people to bring some containers for leftovers.

Use actual dishes and cutlery instead of plastic products. If you really don’t want to clean the dishes, then choose compostable ones you can throw in the compost without feeling guilty.

What ever you wanna do, go for a greener version! It’s really easy to do and will keep a lot out of the landfill and save you money!

I’m looking forward to our Halloween Cul-de-Sac Party!

After Halloween

Halloween is over and you have a bunch of treats? I know we will have too much. We don’t want those to be wasted. So, here are some tips to ensure that the Halloween treats actually get eaten:

Freeze it

Did you know that most candy can be frozen? I learned that with the Girls scout cookies. So, save some for later and what ever occasions may come up, you already have some at home.

Bake with it

If you have a sweet tooth then you can use them to bake. Chocolate brownies or cake with miniature candy bars (so yummy) or add M&Ms to your cookies. If you need more ideas, I found this Ultimate Leftover Candy Recipe Collection!

Donate what’s left.

Dozens of nonprofits that will happily accept candy donations.

Operation Shoebox: Their candy donations go to troops who are going to miss Halloween, Christmas, and Easter

Operation Gratitude: Donate your candy to a local military unit, first responder department or a veteran organization. Fill out the registration form and get matched or ship your candy to the organiyation’s candy processing center in LA.

Ronald McDonald House Charities: Families who will get the taste of the holiday delivered to them and their children who are fighting for their health. Call your local chapter to find out rules on bringing your unopened Halloween candy for severely sick children and their families to enjoy.

Halloween Candy Buy Back: This group partners with businesses such as dentists offices to get extra candy out of the hands of your little ones in exchange for healthy items such as toothbrushes, hygiene kits and coupons.

Local Organizations: Sometimes you don’t have to look far and wide. Include calling your local food pantries, homeless shelters and nursing homes to see if they accept new, unopened Halloween candy. It is always feels wonderful to give back to your own community, and doing something positive for the other members in it.

Do you have candy junkies at home?

And you wonder how to get the candy away from them? If they are older, you can explain, why you would like to donate it. If they are not there yet, have them trade their candy in for small toys or books. Or you can even let the Candy Fairy come (just learnt about her this year). Just leave your leftover candy out and this wonderful fairy will take it away.

Tell me, how are you celebrating Halloween?