​Celebrating Halloween Sustainably

2000 years ago, in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France, the ancient Celts gathered around a bonfire on November 1st for the tradition of Samhain; a celebration signifying the end of the harvest and the beginning of the cold and dark winter months. The Celts believed that the worlds of the dead and the living collided on this night. To ward off spirits such as Lady Gwyn, a headless woman wearing a white dress and accompanied by a black pig, the Celts would gather around a bonfire, wear costumes made from the hides of animals, burn crops, and sacrifice cattle as offerings to deities. In the 9th century, Christianity eventually spread to regions occupied by the Celts, and the celebration of Samhain was adopted as a church-sanctioned holiday during which people dressed as angels, saints, and devils, and paraded around large bonfires. The holiday eventually came to be known as All Saints Day, and the evening before became All Hallow’s Eve, and later, Halloween.

Since the days of the ancient celts, Halloween has become a holiday of trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, costume parties, and scary decorations. It is not only a time of festivities, but also one of mass consumption. The majority of pollution caused by Halloween traditions is from the production of plastic costumes and decorations, and from trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving. In the U.S., Halloween costumes account for roughly 5.4 million kilograms of textile waste; 83% of costumes are made from non-recyclable plastics, which accounts for roughly 2000 tons of plastic waste; and 35 million Halloween costumes are thrown away every year. One trick-or-treater produces an average of one pound of trash during Halloween, and roughly $2.36 billion is spent on decorations that end up in landfills every year. One billion pounds of pumpkin ends up in landfills every year, and methane is released as they decompose.

Halloween celebrations are certainly the source of waste and pollution, but that does not mean we need to scrap them altogether. Here are several ways that the spooky season can be celebrated sustainably.

Candy Wrappers and Trick-or-Treating

• To reduce the amount of plastic pollution from candy wrappers, try buying in bulk or going up a size this year. Letting children take only one snack or regular size; purchasing candy that is packaged in recyclable cardboard such as Milk Duds, Nerds, Junior Mints, Skittles, Dots, and M&Ms; and buying from fair trade or organic brands are all ways to minimize plastic pollution. There are plenty of environmentally-conscious candy brands, so purchasing candy doesn’t have to be guilt-inducing.

• Make sure your trick-or-treaters head out to brave the neighborhood with reusable cloth bags as opposed to the typical plastic bags or pumpkin baskets.
• Recycling candy wrappers when possible can be done by participating in the TerraCycle program, and if you want to get very creative, using candy wrappers for works of art or donating candy wrappers to a local artist is a way of keeping plastic out of the landfill.

• Trick-or-treating can also become a way of contributing to a good cause, which the UNICEF annual trick-or-treating fundraiser makes possible. Children go trick-or-treating with a little orange UNICEF box and collect donations that will help to sponsor efforts to protect the rights of children around the world.

Pumpkins

Responsibly disposing of a pumpkin does not mean throwing it into the forest near your home, because the rotting squash will attract a host of animals and feeding wildlife is never a good idea.

• To minimize pumpkin material, you can roast pumpkin seeds, bake pumpkin pies, make pumpkin soup, or even dehydrate pumpkin rinds to make nutritious treats for your dogs. There are also several composting initiatives and events that allow you to responsibly dispose of your pumpkins such as the SCARCE Pumpkin Smash event.

• The easiest way to prevent pumpkins from ending up in the landfill is to compost them instead of throwing them away. Pumpkins decompose into humus, which enriches the soil. You can compost them in a backyard composting bin or contact a community garden, farm, or wildlife sanctuary near you to ask if they need pumpkins.

• The Pumpkins for Pigs website offers an interactive map of locations to bring leftover pumpkins to. These pumpkins will be taken to farms to feed livestock. Many farms will also post on social media asking for leftover pumpkins, so joining a local Facebook group can help one find a place to take their pumpkins.

Costumes and Decorations

Costume waste builds up when millions of people buy plastic costumes, wear them once, and throw them in the trash.

• To avoid doing this, costumes can be made using repurposed clothing from thrift stores. Goodwill and the Salvation Army offer a variety of repurposed costume options that consumers can purchase. Hand-me-down outfits from older siblings or reusing and upgrading costumes from previous years also minimize waste. One can use plastic materials to make a costume, and recycle the costume later.

• If DIY costumes sound daunting, a face paint-only look using eco-friendly face paints such as those sold at naturalearthpaint.com is another option.

• Starting a community costume swap would be a great way of minimizing waste while also getting to know more people in your local area. If a costume party is in order, the host can use also use reusable or compostable cutlery, cups, and plating for food and beverages such as those offered on our website.

Decorations such as fake spider webs, inflatable ghouls, and skeletons account for a significant portion of the plastic that accumulates on Halloween.

• There are plenty of wooden or even biodegradable decorations such as jack-o-lanterns, dried corn, leaf wreaths, hay bales, and scarecrows that can substitute for plastic decorations. Once the holidays and festivities are over, these items can be easily composted or donated to a local farm.

• If one does choose to buy a plastic Halloween decoration, making sure to keep it in good condition and reuse it every year will prevent more plastic from ending up in the landfill.

• Another small way to reduce plastic production is by using beeswax candles to light jack-o-lanterns or the home for the holidays as opposed to using commercially manufactured candles.

Halloween is a frightening holiday not only because of the scary costumes and decorations, but also the amount of waste that the festivities produce. Plastic candy wrappings, decorations, and costumes as well as leftover pumpkins can end up in landfills and pollute the environment. There are many ways of making the spooky season more environmentally friendly, such as using biodegradable decorations, composting pumpkins, and buying candy in bulk portions. It will take effort, but Halloween doesn’t have to be a time of gluttonous consumption and pollution. It can instead be a time when we not only take care of our Earth, but also demonstrate good consumer practice to younger generations and point out the beauty of nature to children as we traverse the neighborhood with them on their trick-or-treating ventures.