Sustainable Tips for a Greener Halloween
Happy spooky season! Halloween is such a fun time of year. I mean who doesn't love dressing up and indulging in some sweet treats or a good scare? Well, I'll pass on the scare (I'll take Hocus Pocus over The Excorsist ANY day of the week). Plus the wasteful realities of Halloween are scary enough! But with a bit of creative and conscious effort, you can have a spooky and fun Halloween while still treading lightly on the planet. Read on for 5 tips to have a sustainable & chic Halloween this year.
Decorate consciously
When it comes to decorating, take a conscious and sustainable approach. Like with anything around the home, it's important to invest in season decor that's high quality, fits your style, and that you will love and reuse for years to come. Ideally you would avoid plastic and synthetic decorations as well. Be sure to check your local thrift stores for decor as well! I love creating a spooky scene with thrifted books, paintings, vintage candlesticks, and ceramic pumpkins at thrift stores.
Embrace your pumpkin's potential
Use the whole pumpkin and compost to ensure it doesn't become one of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkin that will end up in a landfill post Halloween. Make the most of the pumpkins you carve this year by saving the seesd for roasting and the pulp to use in a pumpkin recipe. When the season's over you can fill your pumpkins with seed for you backyard birds, compost it, or even plant the seeds for next year.
Ditch the cheap costumes you'll only wear once
Now I LOVE dressing up. I mean what's the fun in Halloween without it? But what I don't love is spending a lot of $$ on a cheap costume you'll only wear once. Luckily there are some creative options to get the perfect costume, sustainably!
1. Look for a costume swap in your city, many low waste stores and thrift stores will host these or you could host your own! Make it a party and bring your friends along and shop each other's costumes. You'll save $$, get a new to you costume and give it second life.
2. Visit your local thrift store. Many will have tons of costumes and cool vintage pieces out this time of year.
3. Rent your costume! This is what I'll be doing this year to attend a masquerade ball. I'm thrifting a mask and renting a cool gown from Rent The Runway. I love doing this because I can get something really nice, elevated, and trendy without having to spend a ton on something I'll probably never wear again. Plus I love any excuse to get really fancy and dressed up!
Re-think Halloween Candy
All of those little candy bars are usually packaged in plastic wrappers that can't be recycled and will break down into microplastics that will exist on earth for at least 500 years! That's a scary long lifecycle for just a little bit of candy. There are some ways around this though. Try the DIY route and bake some small cookies or treats to give out or if you're not much of a baker give out small fruits like mandarins. If you are giving out candy though, you could buy candy from your local bulk store and put them in small reusable muslin bags. Or, if you just want to buy some candy to give out with minimal effort just look for options in recyclable foil wrappers or paper boxes like:
Hershey Kisses
Mini Reese Cups
Dots
Nerds
Junior Mints
Milk Duds
Prepare to recycle
You can certainly make the effort to give out more eco friendly candy in your home but we can't control everything and if your kids are going out trick or treating, they'll probably come home with a ton of single wrapped candy. And you know what? It's ok. Don't make a big deal about it and enjoy the holiday. What you can do though, is create a plan for what to do with all those candy wrappers. One of the better options is to go ahead and order a Terracycle pouch or box so you can mail them in to be recycled. Just don't throw the wrappers in your local recycling bins because most recycling facilities cannot recycle these, but Terracycle can.
I hope that you'll find these tips helpful for making this your most sustainable halloween yet, without sacrificing any of the fun! Let me know in the comments or drop me a line on IG.