It’s that time of year again. A crisp, coolness lingers in the air, the trees have become brilliant displays of reds, yellows, and oranges, and pumpkin spice is everywhere. Autumn is well and truly here which also means Halloween is here!
Halloween is one of the most fun times of the year filled with games, treats and spooky costumes! But unfortunately, all those trick and treats can add up to a hefty impact on our planet. In fact, the spookiest thing about Halloween might just be the amount of waste that is produced as a result of it. According to Save your Wardrobe, “7 million Halloween costumes are thrown out every year, this is equivalent to 83 million plastic bottles, most of which will end up in landfill. Just in the UK, around 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated from people throwing away their Halloween costumes”.
Luckily creating celebrating a more sustainable Halloween doesn’t mean giving up your favourite traditions. With these eco-friendly, low-waste Halloween ideas, you can have a fun, memorable holiday without creating a negative impact on the planet.
Here are Pure's Top 5 Tips to Enjoy a Sustainable Halloween
1. Eco-Friendly Halloween Costumes 🧙🏼♀️
Halloween costumes contribute the most to plastic pollution during the festivities, producing around 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste. It is imperative to act responsibly because the majority of costumes end up being worn once before they hit the landfills.
Instead of shopping for new items, look through your wardrobe to see if you can pull together a DIY scary look from your existing clothes, making your own Halloween costume is a great way to reduce waste. Let the kids’ imaginations run wild! 👻
Or how about swapping costumes with a friend, if you wouldn’t re-wear your own costume why not swap with a friend?! Have a Halloween Costume Swap, this could be the theme of the party.
Here are our Top 4 Tips to avoid buying new costumes this Halloween:
Make a costume from old clothes. 👚
Check out your local charity shops (don’t forget to take in and donate your old costumes)
Have a bring and swap Halloween party, or swap with friends ahead of the 31st
Turn it in to a fund-raising event for your school’s PTA. Suggest a Halloween costume stall to be held in October, before half term. Everyone is encouraged to donate an old costume and then costumes can be purchased for a small amount raising funds for the school.
2. No Plastic Trick-Or-Treat Sweet Bucket 🍭
Many of the plastic Halloween buckets you purchase in store only get used one time – now that is scary! One way you can help this is ensuring your bucket is made from sustainable fabrics or as a money saving option who says that old tote can’t have a new spooky life. A great activity that can be done with the kids, simply take an old bag add some spooky decorations and there you have it, a tote with a whole new spook-ified look!
3. Close The Pumpkin Waste Loop 🎃
Pumpkins don’t exactly fit into sustainable Halloween decorations. Both used and wasted pumpkins, after the celebration, are sent off to landfills where they release methane. This dangerous GHG gas traps heat in our atmosphere 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.
To keep waste and dangerous emissions minimal, you can buy pumpkins from local businesses or organic farms instead of supermarket variants grown with toxic fertiliser. Find a local farm and make a day out of choosing the perfect pumpkin. 🎃
Leave no leftovers by consuming the pumpkin, even the seeds! Why not make a yummy pumpkin soup for those colder days, find a gorgeous pumpkin soup recipe here. Plus we have the perfect soup bowls to make your pumpkin soup a smash hit! If there are any pumpkin leftovers, you can pop them into the compost heap. Both these are simple yet effect methods for closing the loop of Halloween pumpkin waste.
4. Fill Bowls with Homemade or Fair-Trade Treats 💀
Everyone knows the struggle of hunting the shop aisles for sweets before the trick or treaters flood in knocking on the door. This year how about you choose organic and fair-trade certified chocolate bars and sweets. Handing out ethical treats offer more than just sugary thrills as they are both delectable and ethically sourced. Ethical chocolate brands to consider – Tony’s Chocolonely, Green & Blacks, Divine Chocolate, Gnaw, Conscious Chocolate, Montezuma’s 🍫🍬
Instead, if you feel like getting your bakers hat on and have some spare time, you could bake up some simple, fun Halloween treats to lay out on platters, ghost cookies, spider cupcakes and witch hats will make up a boo-tiful display! If you have kids at home, get them involved in the great spooky bake-off. 👩🏼🍳👨🏽🍳
5. Eco-friendly decorations 👻
Transform your Halloween décor into a sustainable and spooktacular masterpiece with these simple tips.
Start by reusing old materials like cardboard boxes or newspapers to craft eerie tombstones or creepy creatures.
Opt for LED candles instead of traditional ones for a safe and eco-friendly glow.
Add a dash of nature by incorporating autumn leaves, pinecones and twigs into your decorations.
Consider painting or decorating reusable glass jars to make enchanting lanterns.
For the table, why not explore Pure Table Top’s collections of tableware such as the dark moody tones of the MM Living and Kew Gardens Collections. 🍂
Follow these tips to create a Halloween gathering that’s not only frightfully fun but also gentle on the environment! 🍂 Remember don't be too harsh on yourself when it comes to trying to produce zero waste - it doesn't happen overnight but every little bit helps.
Hope you have a safe and spook-tacular Halloween! 👻🎃💀
