The Most Wasteful Time Of Year
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! September through December is the best time of year without a doubt. We’ve got fall weather, spooky season, thanksgiving and then the holidays.
Unfortunately, it’s also the most wasteful time of year.
Most halloween costumes are made of non-recyclable oil-based plastics. Most halloween candy is wrapped in plastic. Most decor can’t be recycled.
In 2022, Americans spent over 10 billion dollars on Halloween. The breakdown was $3.6 billion on costumes, $3.1 billion on candy, $3.4 billion on decorations, and $0.6 billion for greeting cards.
Now, I’m not saying don’t celebrate fall & the spooky season—because I absolutely will be. But, let’s celebrate a bit more sustainably.
How To Have A Sustainable Spooky Season
Shop Local for Pumpkins, Gourds & Mums
Visit a local farm to pick out your pumpkins this year. While you’re there, ask if they have a pumpkin return program for composting or enrichment for their farm animals.
Use real gourds as natural fall decor—compost or eat them after!
Mums can be expensive, so don’t forget to plant your mums in the ground. They will come back year to year and there will be no need to buy them again.
Leave Your Leaves—Within Reason
Instead of bagging your leaves and sending them to the landfill, leave your leaves. They suppress weeds, fertilize the soil as they break down and serve as a habitat for wildlife that overwinter in the fallen leaves. In 2021, we left our leaves alone. We have an absolutely massive oak tree in our backyard that covers our yard in leaves, and in the spring, unfortunately, they did not break down like they should’ve because there were just too many. We ended up needing to plant grass seed because the leaves had killed a lot of the grass. So now we leave about a quarter of them on our lawn to break down. We use about half of our leaves as filler and mulch in our garden beds. We use some as brown material in our compost, and whatever is left we rake to the street and our town takes it for yard waste composting. So leave the leaves if you can, but if you have a massive tree like us, find other uses for the leaves! Just don’t send them in plastic bags to landfills.
Shop Secondhand For Decor
Americans spend $3.4 billion just for new decorations each year. New decor is not only expensive, but incredibly wasteful. I look for fall decor all year round at thrift shops, and you should too! There is decor from every single era and of many different aesthetics—you’re bound to find things you love. Some of my favorite pieces we put out year after year were found at thrift stores. Also check garage sales, or Facebook Marketplace. The world is littered with enough decor, so find some secondhand. Please don’t be that person that throws out the decor year after year, save it and put it up every year.
Use Every Bit Of Your Pumpkin
Don’t waste your pumpkins, Scoop out and roast the seeds for the perfect fall snack. Chop your pumpkin into pieces, roast in the oven, peel off and compost the skin, and blend the cooked guts and flesh! From here you can freeze your puree and you’ll have fresh puree all year round that’s 110x better than canned pumpkin. We mainly use our pumpkin puree to make pumpkin spice bagels and other fun recipes, and dog treats and meal toppers. It’s convenient to always have some in our freezer year round! If you can’t use it, compost it.
Thrift Your Halloween Costume
Every year, 35 million Halloween costumes are thrown away in the U.S., and they can take anywhere from 20-200 years to decompose. America also spends $3.6 billion on costumes, which are mostly made from non-recyclable plastic. So, instead, thrift your costume. Create it from things you have at home already. Pinterest is an excellent resource for DIY costume ideas. We’ve been using it for the last few years to see what we can grab from our closet to make our costumes. If you absolutely need to buy a new costume for one reason or another, after Halloween, save your costumes from the landfill! Repurpose it, sell it, save it, donate it, something other than sending it to the landfill.
Thrift Your Party Platters
I don’t know about yours, but my thrift stores are absolutely littered with the cutest party platters perfect for all year round and seasonal. We’re hosting the Halloween Party this year, but when we party elsewhere we always bring some snack to eat. I always thrift my party platters to bring because there are several cute ones that are reusable and way cheaper than buying new. They just need a quick run through the dishwasher. I almost picked up this apple dish last week thrifting—but we have several thrifted platters already so I left it behind.
Pass Out Biodegradable-Packaged Candy
This is a tricky one. Odds are you don’t want to make something homemade to pass out nor do people want things homemade because you can’t eat at everyone’s house. Most of the Halloween candy is wrapped in non-recyclable plastic. Candy that is wrapped in something biodegradable can be more expensive and if you have a lot of trick or treaters, that’s not an accessible option. Do the best you can and what works for you! If you can, try to pass out something with foil, cardboard boxes or biodegradable wrappers. Will every trick or treater save their foil to recycle or compost their paper wrappers—probably not. But, then you’re putting your money where your mouth is and not supporting companies that wrap their candy in plastic. Some ideas are foil-wrapped chocolates like Dove or Reeses, Dots or Milk Duds, Juniors Mints, Tootsie Rolls, Nerds boxes, or Hershey Kisses.
Don’t Forget To Compost Those Pumpkins
1.3 Billion Pounds of Pumpkins End Up in Landfills Each Year.
Be sure to compost your pumpkin at the end of the season, feed it to local farm animals or preserve it into pumpkin puree. Pumpkins in landfills release methane gas, a harmful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
