Sustainable Halloween
Our friends from Waste Resources and Action Programme (WRAP) have put together some helpful suggestions to help you celebrate Halloween with some sustainable tricks and treats.
Love Food Hate (Pumpkin) Waste
Pumpkins are an essential part of the spooky season, however, the question of what to do with the pumpkin once Halloween is over is one to consider.
There are alternatives to just throwing it away. Pumpkins are high in vitamin A and C and it’s not just pumpkin pie which can be made with the leftovers this autumn – you can make a hearty soup, pasta bake or risotto, or tasty muffins as an afternoon treat. Additionally, the seeds can be roasted for a tasty snack.
Remember, if you’ve got more pumpkin than you can use straightaway, you can also freeze it – just parboil it in chunks, cool in iced water and pop in an airtight container ready to conjure up something delicious another day. Halloween never looked so tasty!
Please do not discard pumpkins in the countryside, or in the forest, as this can cause serious illness to the wildlife which eats them.
Low Carbon Costumes
Score some Halloween recycling brownie points with these top tips:
Make your costume from recyclable items – from cardboard box robots to DIY witch hats made from old bits of fabric and ghosts from old bedsheets, it’s a great time to get creative with the kids!
Reuse costumes – there’s no shame in being the one who always comes as a zombie if you’ve already got the costume, and it saves buying new. If the kids’ costumes don’t fit them anymore why not hunt around in a charity shop, or online marketplaces to find something pre-loved? These are great places to take your outgrown costumes, too!
Reduce your Disposable Plastic
Every year, Halloween can be awash with cheap plastic: LED pumpkins, scary masks and devil horns, buckets for trick or treating… the list goes on. Reduce your plastic this Halloween and make some simple sustainable switches:
Paper pumpkins – if you’re on a budget or just don’t want to fill your home with real pumpkins, paper pumpkins are a sustainable alternative to plastic ones. If you can’t find any in your local shop, they’re easy and fun to draw, and make great bunting when tied to lengths of string! You can do other spooky paper cut-outs, too – think spiders, skeletons and tombstones.
Use face paint instead of masks – painting a scary face on is a great alternative to buying a plastic mask that could soon end up in the bin.
Use real cutlery and glasses, instead of disposable plastic knives, forks and cups at parties.
Use wicker or metal buckets instead of plastic – get the kids to gather their trick or treating haul in a more sustainable option. A bonus treat if they decorate it themselves!
