A great thing you can do for the planet is to be more mindful during holiday events and Halloween is a big one. Aiming to be more eco-friendly during Halloween has a lot of environmental benefits.
Every year, Halloween is celebrated by children and adults alike, dressing up and gorging on candies and treats. This time of year is celebrated by many, with 175 million Americans celebrating and spending over 9 billion dollars in 2018 alone.
Considering all of the tiny candy bars that are given out to kids, the carved pumpkins, the costumes that only get worn once, and all the driving… there’s a lot of waste generated.
Thankfully, these eco-friendly tips for Halloween are easy, allowing you to lower your environmental impact and help you achieve a greener and zero-waste Halloween.
With carbon emissions growing more and more every year, it’s imperative that more and more of us attempt to better the planet with simple changes to our lives, especially during holidays that are celebrated by millions of people such as Halloween.
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Here are 11 ways to have a more eco-friendly Halloween.
1. Borrow Your Costume
Most costumes are used once and end up sitting in a closet for years or getting thrown away in the garbage.
Instead of wasting money and resources on new costumes that may only get worn once, consider borrowing a Halloween costume or doing a costume swap with a friend.
Reusing Halloween costumes is a great way to have a memorable costume that you won’t end up stuck with after Halloween has ended.
2. DIY Your Costume
You can also DIY your own Halloween costume instead of buying a new costume if you’re feeling creative.
Wearing secondhand clothing has many benefits for the environment and by making your own costume, you’ll also be completely unique.
3. Donate or Pass on Costume
Most costumes are used once and end up sitting in a closet for years and getting thrown away in the garbage.
If you have costumes in your home that have gone unused or end up buying a new costume for Halloween, see if you can donate the costume to your local thrift store or pass it on to a family member or friend.
As previously mentioned, many people don’t wear a costume more than once, so passing it on to someone else who will use it is a great way to reduce textile waste.
Alternatively, look for Halloween costumes are local thrift shops!
4. Forget Store-Bought Face Paint
If you’re considering face paint for Halloween night, consider making your own! Many store-bought face paints contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to yourself and the environment once they are washed off.
Instead of using store-bought face paint that may include contaminants, make your own face paint using natural ingredients!
5. Skip the Car this Halloween
Halloween means that there will be a lot of walking outside, either trick-or-treating, partying or attending festivities.
Keep the earth in mind this Halloween and remember that there will already be a lot of cars on the road.
If you’re taking your little ones trick-or-treating or going to celebrate some local Halloween events, refrain from taking the car to decrease your carbon footprint.
Take the time to walk or even use a wagon to pull your kids should they get tired. This can be a fun experience for the whole family! If you need to travel too far to walk, see if you bike it, or try carpooling with others.
6. Don’t Use a Plastic Bucket
A plastic pumpkin for a candy bin on Halloween is wasteful considering that it’s only used for that one day. Plastic pumpkins are usually cheap which means they won’t stand the test of time.
Instead, be more eco-friendly and opt to use something from your home such as tote bags or pillowcases to carry treats. A pillowcase is bigger (which means more candy!) and there is no unnecessary plastic waste.
7. Use LED or Solar Powered Lights
If you’re expecting trick-or-treaters this Halloween, you’ll probably have your lights on all night to indicate that your home has candy to give.
Ensure you’re using LED light bulbs which are much more energy efficient and will also help you save hundreds per year.
Also, instead of keeping your lights on and using energy, you can opt for solar panelled lights to line your driveway, walkway, porch, etc.
This is a great idea regardless of the season but perfect for Halloween as it would help enhance the Halloween mood.
8. Consider the Pumpkin
If you carve a pumpkin to display in or in front of your home, save those innards! Remember that a pumpkin is a food, so it makes little sense to throw away parts that are perfectly edible.
You can roast the pumpkin seeds for a delicious snack, or keep them and grow your own pumpkins.
If you’re not a fan of pumpkin, there are other zero-waste options instead of eating it, such as composting or feeding them to your chickens should you have any.
You can compost pumpkins, or feed them to your chickens should you have any.
You can also put plants and flowers to display in the pumpkin, and once it starts to degrade, plant it directly in the soil so the plant can benefit from the nutrients from the pumpkin.
Whatever you do with your Halloween pumpkins, ensure that the pumpkin is not painted. If there’s paint on the pumpkin, it shouldn’t be composted, eaten or planted because typical paint is toxic.
Lastly, check out your local farms for an organic pumpkin! Organic pumpkins are grown more sustainably, using natural chemicals and pest treatments, whereas conventional pumpkins are grown with toxic chemicals that pollute groundwater, and may injure other crops and plants. Additionally, organic pumpkins are safer to eat.
9. Use Fall-Friendly Decor
Instead of purchasing decor for Halloween that is limited to Halloween only, keep it seasonal.
Decorate your home with fall-friendly decor that can be used season round, including Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Some fall-friendly decor that’s perfect for Halloween:
- Pumpkins
- Acorns
- Leaves
- Chestnuts
- Sticks and twigs
- Dried corn stalks
- Dried berries
- Cattails
Whatever decorations you’ve purchased or DIY’ed for the season, ensure you pack them well so that they can be reused for next year.
10. Be Mindful of the Treats
Probably the biggest environmental concern when it comes to Halloween is all the candy wrappers and treat bags.
Most candy that’s given out is a small piece of candy or chocolate bar that’s individually wrapped. That’s a lot of plastic that’s typically not recyclable and therefore headed for a landfill and our oceans.
This Halloween, give out treats with no plastic wrappers to reduce waste
You can achieve this by buying candy in bulk and filling the candy in biodegradable candy bags and hand them out to trick-or-treaters.
Another big problem with Halloween candy is that many store-bought Halloween treats are made with palm oil, an unsustainable resource that impacts wildlife due to deforestation.
You can make your own treats to give out on Halloween instead of buying single-use treats that may or may not be made with palm oil.
Wrap your treats in cellophane candy wrappers that will take from 10 days to up to a month to decompose since it’s made with natural materials like trees, hemp and cotton.
11. Hand Out Popcorn
There are some fun ways to give out eco-friendly Halloween treats as an alternative to handing out wrapped candy. For a 100% zero-waste solution, hand out popcorn to trick-or-treaters. Give out popcorn in biodegradable paper bags for easy snacking, and you can close them up with some twine.
Also, considering the price of candy, this is definitely a money-saving option as well.
Giving away popcorn instead of candy on Halloween is a great idea should you have a popcorn maker that you can display on your front porch. You will be one of the favorite houses on your street!
Final Thoughts on These Eco-Friendly Halloween Tips
As you can see, there are some workarounds to make Halloween a little more sustainable.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like these upcycled Halloween decorations using items you may already have on hand!
Happy Halloween!
