Halloween has become a major consumer holiday – in the USA and Canada alone, an
estimated $6.5 billion is spent on Halloween each year [1]. With decorations, costumes,
pumpkin lanterns and treats, its environmental impact can be substantial. However, there are
ways to reduce this and with growing concerns about the environmental cost of Halloween,
particularly in North America, there are plenty of ideas to make it more sustainable.
Costumes and decorations
The easiest way to make Halloween decorations and costumes more environmentally friendly
is to reuse and recycle them. Costumes can be homemade from other clothes, swapped with
other people, bought second hand or used in more than one year. Ideas for costumes for
adults and children can be found online [e.g. 2, 3] and can easily be adapted. Jewellery, for
example spider earrings and bracelets [4, 5], can also be made from recycled materials.
Decorations can also be homemade and used again. There are lots of ideas online for
Halloween arts and crafts, particularly for children to make. Many use recycled or household
materials, such as lanterns made from old teacups, jars or milk bottles, a candle decorated
with napkins, pictures and cards made with paper hole punchings and egg box bats [6, 7, 8].
Pumpkin lanterns
The least environmentally friendly way to create a Halloween lantern from a pumpkin is
probably to buy a non-locally sourced pumpkin from a supermarket, carve out the insides and
throw the remains straight in the bin. Alternatively, a pumpkin could be grown in a garden or
allotment through the year, ready for Halloween, or locally grown pumpkin could be bought.
The flesh and seeds can be eaten, and any remains could be composted or, where available,
put into council composting and garden waste collections.
Pumpkin seeds can be sown from April to June in pots for planting into the ground later, or
from late May to early summer directly into the ground. They should be fed and watered
regularly whilst growing, and once harvested can be stored for four to six months. The BBC
Gardening website has further instructions and advice for growing the best pumpkin for
Halloween [9].
Various pumpkin recipes can be found online or in cookery books. For example, pumpkin
flesh can be used to make soup (this is also a good way of using pumpkins that haven’t
grown big enough for lanterns, and the soup can be cooked and served in the hollowed out
pumpkin shells) [10] or pumpkin pie [11], and the seeds can be roasted [12] to make snacks
or toppings for other food such as cereal or yoghurt. The oven only needs to be at 140oC, so
could be used to roast the seeds after cooking something else at a higher temperature.
Halloween treats
Fun size treats given out at Halloween use more packaging and resources than full size
products – while individually packaged sweets can be a good idea for hygiene reasons
if they’re going to be given out at the front door, using fewer full size treats rather than
more fun sizes ones can reduce their carbon footprint. They can also be stored in reusable
containers, rather than given out in disposable bags. For treats at home or at parties, food can
be homemade, and making it can also be turned into an activity for children. There are lots
of recipes available online for general Halloween treats and party food, such as cupcakes,
toasted bats, a graveyard cake, Halloween biscuits, chocolate spiders, peanut butter eyeballs,
witches’ hats, eyeball pasta and spider jellies [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18], as well as Halloween
cocktails for adults and children [19]. Avoiding disposable plates, cups and cutlery is also
a good idea; if breakages are a worry, solid plastic or metal items that can be washed and
reused are an alternative to single use paper or disposable plastic products.
[1] http://www.greenmuze.com/green-your/42-celebrations/212-green-halloween-.html
[2] http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/homemade-halloween-costumes-for-adults-1008
[3] http://spoonful.com/halloween/halloween-kids-costumes
[4] http://tinygreenmom.com/2011/10/how-to-make-spider-earrings-with-recycled-materials/
[5] http://www.ehow.com/video_2369236_halloween-crafts-spider-bracelet-tips.html
[6] http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/halloween-decorationsmakingcraftsideaskids.html
[7] http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-crafts/halloween-decorations/
[8] http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/homemade-halloween-costumes-for-adults-1008
[9] http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingpumpkins1.shtml
[10] http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pumpkinsoup_89904
[11] http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pumpkinpie_70659
[12] http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2170/oven-roasted-pumpkin-seeds.aspx
[13] http://www.netmums.com/family-food/seasonal/devilish-delights-halloween-party-food
[14] childparenting.about.com/od/funcelebrations/tp/Spook-Tacular-Treats-Fun-Halloween-Recipes-For-Kids.htm
[15] http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/halloween_baking_recipes
[16] http://halloween.about.com/od/recipesforhalloweentreat/Recipes_for_Halloween_Treats.htm
[17] http://halloween.about.com/od/recipesforhalloweentreat/Recipes_for_Halloween_Treats.htm
[18] http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/occasions/halloween/
[19] http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/halloween_cocktail_recipes
