5 Ways To Have An Eco Friendly Halloween

Halloween is such a fun holiday, especially if you have young kids! Getting them dressed up in their favorite costume and knocking on neighbors’ doors is a great way to get outside on a cool, crisp fall evening and get better acquainted with your neighbors. But when it comes to being environmentally friendly, Halloween could use some help. Here’s what we recommend to help green up your Halloween!

Ditch the plastic

It can be tempting to grab a plastic sack or a plastic jack-o-lantern for your kids to collect candy in, but every piece of plastic ever made is still somewhere, and these kinds of plastics are rarely recycled. Instead, grab an old pillow case or a tentree mystery bag to use for candy storage. Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but pillow cases have room for more candy! How can you lose?

Walk or bike, don’t drive

It can be tempting to hop in the car and drive from house to house, especially if the weather is a little nasty (as it can be on Halloween). But before you drive your kids around your neighborhood, think about whether or not that’s truly necessary. Walking is a great activity for your health, and the average child in the US will eat 7,000 calories of candy just in this one night alone!

Shop thrift stores for costumes

Store bought costumes are easy and can be a lot of fun, but making a costume out of thrift store finds is even better. Irresponsible, fast fashion can be a terrible polluter, and many of these costumes are not made with sustainable materials like hemp and tencel. By picking out a secondhand costume, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint, end up spending less money on the costume, and your kids will still love it!

Help clean up

I’ll admit it: I remember walking around on Halloween eating the candy as I went from house to house. Who would wait? My parents taught me better than to litter, but not everyone cares. After Halloween is over, consider a quick walk with your kids to pick up any candy wrappers that may have been dropped. You can also encourage kids to use a trash can at your home if they have any wrappers to throw away.

Minimize packaging

In the United States alone, 300,000 tons of Halloween candy are given out to trick-or-treaters. That’s a lot of candy! It’s a lot of individual wrappers too. These wrappers are seldom recycled, unfortunately, which adds to the plastic crisis enveloping the globe. When buying candy to hand out, look for minimally wrap candies.