Intro

Quick statistics about Halloween

• Around $5bn dollars spent each year in US alone on costumes
• Most people buy new costumes every year

My story with Halloween

Problems

• 82.5% plastic in costumes
  • Bad quality
  • Poor worker's rights
  • Shipped across the world
  • Other problems:
    • Glitter → microplastics
• Candy
  • Un-recyclable wrappers
  • Bad agricultural practices
    • Is chocolate Fairtrade?
    • Bad agriculture
    • Gummies have gelatine → meat industry
• Decorations
  • Often single-use
  • Glitter → microplastics (again)
  • Not recyclable
  • Little bits can fly off?

Solutions

We don't want to ruin Halloween for you! But there are some simple ways to drastically reduce the impact of Halloween

• Costumes
  • What do you already have?
    • What do your friends have?
    • What does your sibling have?
    • My story with halloween costumes- one box with everything!
      • American calendar thing
  • Don't buy new
    • Whatever you do, don't buy new (that rhymes)
    • Buy second hand - often very good offerings
      • Or put something together
    • Rent
      • Very good quality often if you're not a fan of DIY
      • Pricier
      • Not the best option
  • Mix and match
    • Don't think of a character first: see what you have and make something out of that
  • Don't use
    • Glitter
    • Face Paint
    • Plastic accessories
• Decorations
  • Natural decorations like autumn leaves and organic hay and pumpkins
  • Make surprise boxes out of cardboard and fill with things like spaghetti and baked beans!
  • If you do buy something, make sure to reuse it every year
• Candy
  • Buy local organic candy
    • #keepthingslocal
    • Supporting local businesses
    • Hopefully wrapped more sustainably
  • I was interested to find that homemade treats are a no-go for safety reasons
    • That would've been my go-to solution
    • Maybe that's only the US - we put out cucumber and carrot sticks most years
  • Candy with recyclable wrapping
    • e.g. Smarties
  • Terracycle
    • It's pricey and not available everywhere, but this would allow everyone in your neighbourhood to recycle all their sweet wrappers
    • If you want to preserve a "normal" halloween, then this is probably the best option, but it's not exactly easy to execute, and it still proliferates the other problems with mainstream candy
  • Upcycle candy wrappers
    • Last year I made mine into glitter and put it in an old jar for a pretty decoration
    • Not the best solution, though
  • Reusable bag for collecting candy
    • Is this not already standard? sigh
• Most importantly: spread the word - organise a community-wide eco Halloween, or at least encourage your friends and family
• EAT YOUR PUMPKIN

Conclusion

• We don't want to ruin your fun and games
• But Halloween is stupidly consumeristic