How to Reduce Your Environmental Footprint This Halloween

Spooky season is scary for more than one reason: it’s the beginning of the most wasteful time of the year. Between Halloween and New Years Day, Americans generally increase their waste by around 25% from physical waste, emissions, new items, and more.

So, let’s discuss how to have an enjoyable holiday season with less waste starting off with Halloween!

Decorations

Halloween may only be one day, but I know many people decorate and celebrate fall all month long. This usually comes with decorations for your home, outside, and other areas of your life. This year, let’s be mindful about how we’re decorating.

First, generally speaking, use what you have. If you no longer like your old decor, declutter and donate it. When looking for new decor, opt for secondhand first. There are so many cute items you can find secondhand! This could be swapping decor with a friend, heading to a thrift store in person, or even browsing online on places like Facebook Marketplace, Buy Nothing Groups, OfferUp, and more.

Second, when decorating, think about ways you can reuse that decor all year long. Perhaps you’re buying a basket, a sign, a garland, or something else. See if you can find ways to use it the rest of the year versus it collecting dust 11/12 months.

I also highly recommend you avoid single-use junk such as fake spider webs. This plastic can blow away, entangle animals, and it’s pollutive to create and dispose of. Just avoid it!

Pumpkins

A very popular decoration item is pumpkins whether you’re carving them or not. Did you know pumpkins are food? Yes the same pumpkins we use for decoration are the same pumpkins we put into our pies in November and December!

Not all pumpkins are going to be edible once November 1st rolls around, especially carved ones. Whether you’re eating them or not, I highly recommend you do NOT throw them into the landfill. Food waste is one of the leading causes of climate change, so reduce the amount of methane you’re sending to the landfill.

If your pumpkin is uncarved and not rotting on the outside, cut it open and see if it’s still in good shape! If it is, try eating it this year. You can puree it for pumpkin pie, soup, or curry. You can dice and roast it alongside other veggies. Or enjoy it how you like it best! I love to roast it, puree it, and freeze it to use all winter long in pies, dog treats, baked goods, and more. It’s so versatile for humans and our pets alike.

If your pumpkin is carved and/or rotted, don’t eat it. Instead you can compost it in your own compost or use your city’s compost pick-up program, give it to a friend to compost, or you can try to find a local farm who may feed it to their barnyard animals.

I highly encourage you to NOT throw it into the woods. It could cause a pumpkin patch to grow and may become invasive over time.

Learn about different ways to compost in this video.

Lights

Holiday lights might be the biggest around Christmas, but plenty of people put up Halloween lights as well! That’s all fine, do what decorations you prefer, but be mindful about how long they are plugged in for your own money savings and for the environment. For example, you don’t need outdoor lights on during the day, they won’t be visible. Same with the middle of the night, few people will be awake to enjoy them.

Unplug them when not in use so you can enjoy them without increasing your energy bill too much.

Candy

The star of the show for Halloween has to be the candy! Let’s talk about how to have candy in a less wasteful way.

First, the physical waste. Much of our holiday candies are NOT packaged in recyclable material. Even if it has a recycling symbol on it doesn’t mean that it WILL be recycled. Always check your local rules before recycling. Even then, generally speaking, most candy is packaged in thin plastic which are rarely accepted curbside. So, avoid this when possible. Find candy in paper boxes like Milk Duds, Mike n Ikes, and so forth. Or candy in aluminum like mini Reese’s cups. It’s hard to find truly zero waste packaged candy, so do your best.

You could also opt for vegan candies to pass out and eat for yourself. Yes, even if it comes in plastic, it’s still less impactful on the planet. Vegan candies include Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Dum Dums, and more. I have a full list in this video.

Now, it’s not sanitary to pass out bulk store candy, but it is totally fine to get candy from the bulk store for you to eat at home and reduce packaging. So, head to your local refill store to stock up on candy to enjoy this Halloween! You may even find something new you like and it’s probably cheaper, too.

Another idea for at home use only is to make candy and treats from scratch. Generally speaking this is not acceptable for passing out candy so keep that in mind. This could look like homemade caramel apples, homemade popcorn balls, homemade chocolate bars, and more!

A bonus tip here when you get home from trick-or-treating, sort your (or your kids) candy. I hate when my chocolate candy starts to taste fruity and vice versa. You can avoid this by sorting the candy with like items. And, keep that candy in an area where it will get eaten. The last thing you want is forgotten candy that attracts mice or expires!

Costumes

Costumes can be SO much fun, but also very wasteful. So, here are some options to avoid the waste.

Wear your costume from years past again! Honestly, no one will even notice.

Similar to decor, swap costumes with a friend to change it up.

Shop for costumes secondhand if you want something premade. I see SO many costumes at the thrift store every fall.

DIY a costume! You can check out this old video with some DIY costume ideas that are planet-friendly, budget-friendly, and are made of items you probably already have or could thrift. I’ve been doing this since high school simply to save money and it’s been so fun.

Candy Buckets

I simply do not understand why people buy new candy buckets every year. You get the idea by now: use your items from last year! My entire childhood I used the same purple stereotypical pumpkin basket for trick-or-treating and I loved it. You can also use a classic pillow case that you can reuse the rest of the year or any basket or bag. Spare tote bags are a great idea or even a plain-colored Easter basket!

You get the idea, use what you have or thrift something instead of buying new.

trick-or-treating

The event of the holiday: trick-or-treating! But, of course, let’s do it with less waste.

Instead of driving from house to house, if you’re able to, park and walk. When I was a kid, we didn’t walk the entire neighborhood, but we would walk one street at a time so the driving was less. It’s a great way to get exercise as a family and interact with your neighbors!

Pass out things besides candy: soda, water, zero waste snacks, and so forth. This is a great way to reduce waste for yourself and the trick-or-treaters AND who doesn’t love a cold drink when you’ve been walking all evening. I got this idea from my friend Krys!

Now, you might be wondering, will those cans you’re passing out even get recycled? Maybe, maybe not, but you can do your part by providing a recycling option for the people in your neighborhood by setting out a bin. You can also provide a trash can simply to prevent litter. Many kids (and adults) like to eat some of the candy while they walk, but some people may litter intentionally or unintentionally. Providing a trash can can help with this.

Avoid passing out junk like plastic rings and things of that nature. They might get used that evening, but they likely won’t be held onto long and will just be wasted. No matter how wasteful the candy is, at least it will get eaten. But wasteful, gimmicky items like this? Genuine waste. Avoid it!

Parties

Halloween parties can be so fun but also so wasteful. Here’s how you can reduce that waste:

Bringing it back to decor, in short, use what you have, thrift new items, and keep it as low waste as possible.

For food, make as much as you can from scratch or do it potluck style and ask each guest to bring one thing to limit how much each person has to make. From scratch usually means less packaging.

For drinks, offer drinks in pitchers like lemonade and offer reusable or recyclable cups (red solo cups are not commonly recycled for example). If you want single-use drinks, opt for cans first, plastic bottle second, and lastly plastic pouches.

When serving the food, try to use reusables as much as possible. If your party is big, you can thrift extra plates. If you can’t do this, opt for disposables made from plants like bioplastic, bamboo, and paper instead of plastic. I like brands like Repurpose!

Have options for guests to recycle, compost, and throw away items. Try to limit how much people are using the trash and prioritize and label trash and compost options.

Have a plan for leftover food or send leftovers home with guests in reused containers so prevent food waste.

Send out invites digitally versus on paper (this also saves money).

Encourage guests to dress up with things they already have from their closet or find something thrifted. It might also be fun to host a costume swap party! Everyone brings their old costumes and everyone leaves with a new one or multiple!

Leaves

This isn’t really Halloween-themed, but fall-themed: leave the leaves! Leaves create habitat for animals, creates fertilizer for your yard for free, and it really doesn’t damage your yard. Unless you have a strict HOA that says “no leaves,” I highly encourage you to leave them. And by leave them I mean LEAVE them! Don’t mulch them, it can harm critters hiding in there!

Not only does it provide habitat for worms, bugs, and small mammals, but these animals provide food higher up the food chain and helps the entire ecosystem.

If you have too many leaves, clear some of them and leave the rest. When disposing of leaves, find a way to compost them instead of sending them to the landfill. It’s a waste of plastic bags AND they create methane just like food waste.

Happy Fall!

What did I miss? Leave your tips for a zero-waste Halloween down below and I hope this helps you out this holiday season. Plenty of these tips can extend to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and even beyond into Birthdays, Easter, and more!

Want more inspo for low waste holidays? Check out this full playlist on YouTube.

Happy Halloween, happy waste reducing, and happy fall! I hope you have a lovely holiday season saving money, preventing waste, and spending time with loved ones.

As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)

Emma