Spooky & Sustainable: 8 Eco-friendly ways to celebrate Halloween

Halloween can produce a lot of waste - single-use candy wrappers, cheap costumes, and decorations that end up in landfills or as litter just days after they’ve left the store. While it’s hard to achieve a completely waste free Halloween experience, it’s amazing how close you can get while still being festive and celebrating in style.

Here are 8 Eco-friendly ways to celebrate Halloween, without losing the essence of the celebration: 

🎃 Decorations: Reuse and get creative instead of buying materials for decorations, gather supplies, arts and crafts throughout the year. 

🎃 Costumes: Make your own - keep old clothes that can be used as good pieces or parts of costumes, like worn t-shirts, black pants/shorts, etc. If necessary, shop at thrift shops, consignment stores and yard sales, instead of buying retail. 

🎃 Parties: When having a party, cut down on waste by avoiding disposable cups, plates and cutlery. Use regular dishes or buy biodegradable ones and use a marker (or apply labels) to identify cups so party-goers can keep track of theirs. 

🎃 Treats: Buy locally produced foods, candies and treats. Look for goodies with minimal packaging and/or those made packaged in recycled materials. Check labels to see that chocolate and sugar are from sustainable sources. 

🎃 Trick-or-Treat Bags: Use (and decorate) household items to collect candy in. A bucket, pillowcase, or old even an old bag can be decorated inexpensively at home - and reused year after year. 

🎃 Transportation: Trick or Treat by walking around your neighbourhood instead of driving to another destination. Get to know your neighbours, reduce your carbon emissions and help keep the streets safe for other walkers. 

🎃 Compost and Recycle: From party food to treats to pumpkins, consider composting all organic matter and recycling other items.  

A 2020 survey conducted by the sustainability charity, Hubbub found that 24 million pumpkins are bought by the British public every year. 12.8 million are thrown away because a lot of people don't realise that the inside of a pumpkin is edible. That's over half of them carved and discarded. This adds to the 6.6 million tonnes of food and drink thrown away by UK homes every year. 

🎃 Reuse: Reuse as much as you can from year to year. Instead of throwing away an old box or bag, use it to gather all your decorations and keep for next year. 

For more information, please visit: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/10-green-halloween-tips.