With Halloween just around the corner it's important for us to look into the ways we can celebrate sustainably. Every year on average the UK spends £300 million in preparation for Halloween. From costumes to pumpkins, this produces a scary amount of waste and has harmful effects on the environment. But what can we do to help and have a more sustainable Halloween?

Costumes

Dressing up is a key part of Halloween, with 39 million people across the UK taking part each year. Around 7 million of these costumes then end up being thrown away, producing massive amounts of plastic waste. Halloween costumes are around 80% plastic and likely to end up in landfills where they could take up to 200 years to decompose. There is also the added cost of buying a new Halloween costume each year as they are often over priced and don’t last.

Here are some ways to reduce your waste when dressing up:

● Use your everyday clothes - there are so many ways to use the items already in your wardrobe to create great costumes, which will save you money and will still be something you can wear after Halloween
● Reuse a previous costume- if you don’t want to wear a costume you have worn previously see if you can swap with a friend, this way you can both have something different to wear without buying new
● Buy second hand - charity shops are a great place to find costumes or even items you can upcycle into a costume for cheaper and help reduce fast fashion.

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Pumpkins

Pumpkins are another huge source of waste around Halloween.

Pumpkin carving is a popular tradition and it’s estimated 35 million will be bought in the UK this year and almost half of them will go to waste. As they decompose they release methane which is harmful to the environment. A lot of this waste is due to a lack of knowledge, only 47% of people know that you can eat your pumpkins and only 1 in 12 people do.

So why not try something different with your pumpkin this year and check out some great recipes from Hubbub, who also run an annual #PumpkinRescue campaign, to increase knowledge and reduce pumpkin waste.

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Decorations

Halloween decorations for parties are also another source of plastic waste. Most Halloween decorations are made out of plastics that are often disposed of after the 31st.

If you are wanting to decorate for Halloween this year try some sustainable options such
as:
● DIY - make decorations from things you have around the house. You can use
cardboard to make designs, use old tights for cobwebs or bedsheets for ghosts. Get
creative!
● Pumpkins- use your pumpkin as decoration, but be sure to get the most out of all parts of your pumpkin, as mentioned earlier
● Buy second hand - again charity shops are a great place to find decorations and items to repurpose.
● Reuse - finally try to keep your decorations to reuse every year. If you’re buying them, look for high quality that will last! Remember to recycle what you can after Halloween, save costumes and decorations to use again for next year and these small changes can help to make a big difference!