Halloween is always a frightening time. But do you know what’s really scary? The tradition creates so much waste. But don’t worry! There are still ways to get your thrills and chills without being spooked by the climate.
Here are 5 things to know about being green during Halloween time.
- Your pumpkin is scary, there’s no doubt, but did you know that over a billion pounds of them end up jammed together underground in landfills? That means they decompose without oxygen, releasing methane that traps more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. So instead of tossing it, how about using your pumpkin? Turn it into a bird feeder? Or a planter. And you can roast and eat the seeds too.
- Candy is a terrifying treat! Not just because of the extra pounds we put on when we eat it but also because of the hard to recycle plastic wrappers. Each Halloween, we spend over $2 billion on 600 million pounds of candy in the U.S.
- We could make our own candy or homemade toffee apples, but that’s more tricky for parents and kids to trust these days. Instead, choose bulk candy bags as they have less plastic and fair-trade brands or organic treats that are made using fewer pesticides, so they’re better for our climate.
- And how about the bags used to collect the candy? We use 100 billion plastic bags every year, so boo them by doing what we did before stores made us lazy — use our own bags — even a pillowcase! You can put more candy in them anyway.
- Now for the real monster hiding in plain sight. We buy over $3 billion worth of costumes every year. And a huge proportion of that is just plastic, which then gets trashed after October. So instead, make it yourself. It’s more fun, looks cooler and you can buy the parts by thrifting at second-hand stores.
The really scary numbers from the National Retail Federation say we will spend over $10 billion on our spooky obsession this year. And while that’s good for the economy, it’s important to know that the colors of our horrifying holiday are easy to change from orange to green.