With Halloween just around the corner, everyone is eager to get in the mood, whether that be planning an amazing Halloween costume or pumpkin carving with your friends. However, many of these seasonal activities are contribute to negative environmental impacts. Instead of contributing to a culture of wasteful consumerism, try out these top tips on how to have a green Halloween!
- Dressing up
Halloween costumes are a ripe area of consumerism. People flood the shops searching for a new costume. However, these costumes are often worn only once before being thrown away, contributing to the yearly 92 million tonnes of textile waste produced globally. This figure is expected to rise to 134 million tonnes of textile waste by 2030.
A great step in the right direction in avoiding this waste is to reuse old clothes and costumes. Look through your wardrobe and see what you can put together from the items you already have! Alternatively, shopping costumes second-hand is always better than buying from fast fashion companies.
If one has the expertise, you could even make your own costume! Whatever it is that you want to be, avoid buying costumes you will wear once before throwing away.
- Choosing your pumpkin
Although buying pumpkins to carve from local supermarkets is often the most straightforward choice, it is not the most sustainable. Many shop-bought pumpkins are imported, resulting in a high carbon footprint from the transportation of the pumpkins.
A more environmentally friendly alternative is to buy from local farmers. You can make this into a seasonal day out with friends or family by visiting a local pumpkin patch!
Growing your own pumpkin is another great way to avoid contributing to carbon emissions! Although it requires dedication, growing your own pumpkin can have a huge payoff.
- After carving your jack-o-lantern
Most people are too eager to create a wonderful design for their jack-o-lantern that they dismiss the huge amounts of waste they are creating by simply throwing out the pumpkins’ guts after carving, and the pumpkins’ skin once Halloween is over. In fact, 18 thousand tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away in the UK every Halloween.
A simple way to avoid such waste is to use your carved pumpkin guts as compost. However, there are lots more delicious ways you can avoid creating waste, namely through using the seeds and guts to make food! By washing and roasting the seeds, you can enjoy them as a snack on their own or add them to another dish to add some crunch! The guts themselves can be used for much more, from pumpkin pie to pumpkin juice – whole array of cooking possibilities awaits just a Google search away.
- Handing out treats
You can even use your newly learned pumpkin recipes as treats to hand out to children on Halloween, especially since supermarket sweets often have negative environmental effects attached to them. For example, palm oil – which is produced through deforestation primarily in Southeast Asia and South America – is often found in popular sweets to create a chewy, gummy texture. Big-name chocolate brands like Nestlé have been criticised for their unethical sourcing of palm oil, and sweet brand Haribo is also notorious for its insufficient sustainability policies.
With such famous brands failing in their contribution to a greener planet for everyone, it is better to just avoid supermarket chocolate and instead source your Halloween sweets from local producers, which not only contributes to a smaller carbon footprint but also helps in uplifting local businesses.
Feature image: James Wheeler via Pexels