Halloween is such a fun time of the year, but it can also be very wasteful. For example did you know that 12,500 tons of Halloween costumes get sent to landfill each year? This is disheartening, but don’t worry, you can still embrace this festive season in all its glory and still be sustainable!
PUMPKINS
Let’s start with a Halloween staple, the trusty old pumpkin. Every year 10 million pumpkins are grown in the UK. A whopping 95% of these are used at Halloween and then thrown away creating 18,000 tonnes of food waste.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
There’s so much more to these magnificent fruits than simply carving funny faces. There are delicious and festive recipes you can try, anything from soup, risotto or a favourite from across the pond, pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin seeds are known to have numerous health benefits. According to the American Heart Association, pumpkin seeds can help with a variety of health problems such as sleep, blood sugar and cholesterol. So don’t let them go to waste!
DECOR
Decorating your home is a great way to welcome in the new season and with all these lockdown restrictions in place it’s probably more important than ever this year. But with all the disposable and mass produced Halloween decorations around it can be a struggle to keep things sustainable.
Here are some fool proof tips on keeping your home sustainable yet spooky:
TRY YOUR HAND AT DIY
If you have the time, make your own decoration. This can be so much fun, especially if you have kids around. Here are some of my favourite projects:
Bed sheet ghosts.
All you need for these are some old bedsheets, old newspapers, dry fallen leaves and some string. Simply stuff your sheet with leaves or newspaper, then tie the string around it to make a head, then hang them up for a ghostly spooky effect.
These can be put inside your house or outside and you can make them as big or as small as you like.
Spider web
Nothing says creepy like a giant spider web. All you need is some yarn (whatever colour you want your web to be) and something to weave in on. Follow this link for a step by step guide on how to do this perfectly.
Luminaries
If you have some spare cans around the house or in your recycling bin, fish them out and clean them up because they are about to become your favourite Halloween decoration.
All you need to do is take your clean cans, punch some holes in them, in a festive design. Then pop in some candles and you’re done!
BUY QUALITY
If DIY just isn’t your thing or you simply don’t have the time, there is nothing wrong with buying your decorations, but do treat them as an investment. Buy decorations that are going to last you year after year and can be easily recycled at their end of use.
We hope you enjoyed our sustainable tips and feel inspired to try your hand at some of the suggestions. If you do, let us know how it goes! Comment below or tag us in your social media posts, we’d love to see your creations!
From all of us here at EBD we hope you have great Halloween despite your lockdown restrictions! For more on having a sustainable Halloween check out our previous Halloween blog here.