Celebrating Halloween has become more and more popular over recent years. However, this comes at a cost to our pocket and also the planet as the amount of extra waste from decorations, costumes and food packaging mounts up! Carving pumpkins continues to be as popular as ever, however an estimated 22 million will be carved but not eaten this year in the UK. That’s about £32million worth of edible food wasted!
Here are our top tips to have a low waste October!
1. Use what you already have
Dig out old costumes and decorations you already have before buying anything new.
2. Shop secondhand
Look for costumes and decor on online sites such as Vinted, OLIO, Freecycle, Freegle, Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace. Charity shops often have a seasonal section and tend to have a large array of pre-loved costumes and decor.
3. Think about the container
Taking your child(ren) trick or treating? Rather than buying a plastic pumpkin bucket to hold treats in, what about using a wicker basket or an ordinary bucket that you could decorate yourself? That way you can personalise it and use it year on year and reduce plastic waste at the same time!
4. Giving your house a spooky make-over?
Why not make your own decorations rather than buying new ones? Transform old cardboard boxes into skeletons or tombstones and old bed sheets into ghost costumes. You can find lots of ideas here.
5. Make your treats (and tricks...)
Trick and treating sweets come in lots of single use packaging. Why not have a go at making some treats yourself? They’ll taste better too! Ideas here.
6. Eat Your Pumpkin!
22 million pumpkins are destined to be carved but not eaten this year! There are many delicious ways to eat your pumpkin, why not try a pumpkin curry or pumpkin cupcakes? Food Savvy has got lots of recipe inspiration….
7. Costume swap
In the UK, around 42 million costumes are bought each year in the UK, 7 million of these costumes will end up in the bin. Instead of buying your costume this year why not ask a friend or family member if they have one that you can borrow?
8. Don’t bin your batteries
Need to replace the batteries in some of your decorations? Batteries can cause fires when put in your kerbside recycling or rubbish bins. Make sure to take your batteries to your local recycling centre or supermarket for safe disposal. Try and buy electronics with removable batteries so you can use them again and again rather than single use electronics that you can't charge or change the batteries.
9. Sort your Halloween waste
Re-use, recycling or compost at home where possible and take hard to recycle items to drop off points or recycling centres. Find your nearest one here.