How to stay low-waste this Halloween

 

We have reached the scariest time of the year, Halloween! Cue the spooky ghosts, creepy costumes and enough sweets to put you in a food coma. However, amongst all the excitement, we may not realise the impact our actions on this holiday are having. The spookiest part of Halloween, in reality, is the waste that it generates. 

 

We are all aware of the impact fast fashion has on the planet, but often people do not associate this with one-off days of the year. Each year in the UK, the equivalent of 83 million plastic bottles are thrown away from cheap Halloween costumes. Let that sink in, 83 million plastic bottles, from one day out of the whole entire year. Furthermore, 83% of the materials used in these cheap costumes, often found on Amazon and similar sites, are oil-based polluting plastics that inevitably end up in landfills. This is just the waste from costumes, let’s not forget the waste from candy wrappers, plastic trick-or-treat bags and decorations too! In the US alone, one pound of rubbish is generated per tricker treater.

 

Another frightening aspect of Halloween results from the use of pumpkins. While pumpkins should decompose naturally, once they are sent to tightly compact landfills oxygen isn’t able to reach them. This causes the pumpkins to release methane while decomposing. Methane, a greenhouse gas, has 80% more warming power than carbon dioxide.

 

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