3 easy ways to have a greener Halloween

Between decorations, costumes and individually wrapped sweets Halloween isn’t the most eco-friendly time of the year. Luckily, we’re here for you with some easy tips for having a greener Halloween.

Get crafty

Decorating your home is one of the best parts of Halloween but all those plastic decorations can generate a lot of waste. Instead, get crafty with your Halloween decorations – there are so many things you already have in your home that can be turned into ghoulish decorations.

Old tights can become spider webs, turn milk bottles into spooky ghosts with some lights and papers, and old sheets can easily become skeletons with the help of a marker pen. And of course… you can repurpose your toilet roll cores to create some spooky decorations.

The most classic Halloween decoration is definitely sustainable… the humble pumpkin! We’d recommend buying a pumpkin from a local farm, but they are readily available at most supermarkets. Carve them out to make a classic Jack O’Lantern, keep the seeds and flesh to eat later: you can roast the seeds for a tasty snack, and make pumpkin soup or the classic American Pumpkin pie. You can also compost your pumpkin and plant the seeds to grow your own pumpkins for next year. What a win-win situation!

Switch your Halloween sweets

Typical Halloween sweets we give out to trick or treaters are fun-size chocolate bars and miniature bags of sweets. All of which come wrapped in lots of plastic that will ultimately end up in a landfill.

So why not avoid all those individually-wrapped treats, and make some yourself? Biscuits go down well with kids of all ages. You can get creative with your decorations, making them as ghoulish as you desire. A basic biscuit dough only takes around 20 minutes to make, and you can get creative with flavours and toppings. Then simply pop them into a paper bag for trick or treaters!

If you don’t fancy baking, try giving out vegan sweets, or foil and paper-wrapped sweets to reduce your environmental impact.

Costumes 

Cheap and easy ‘fast fashion’ Halloween costumes are one of the largest contributors to waste at Halloween, with Fairyland Trust finding around three quarters of Halloween costumes/clothing from five retailers was made from polyester, estimated to generate 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year. 

Instead of throwing money away on a costume you’ll only wear once, why not DIY it? Search through your wardrobe and repurpose those items you haven’t worn in a while.

If you own a black and white striped shirt and have an old black t-shirt knocking around, you can easily dress as a burglar.

If you have an old white t-shirt lying around, you can get creative by cutting out the shape of a ribcage on it and using a black eyeliner to paint your face like a skull.

Sticking with the eyeliner has anyone ever gone wrong with a cat? Simply doodle a nose and some whiskers on your face!

You can also keep it classic with the old bedsheet ghost…

Make sure to tag us on Instagram and Facebook if you have any of your own greener Halloween tips. And for more eco tips, head over to our blog.