Eco-Logical Moment: Have a Green Halloween!

[I’m confident that most of us at NVC know this and do this already, but with this much money being poured into Halloween, it’s worth reminding.] 

According to the National Retail Federation, 158 million people will celebrate Halloween this year and will spend $2.6 billion on costumes alone. When you include the cost of decorations and candy, the NRF predicts that a total of $6.9 billion will be spent and the average American family will spend $75.03 on this holiday. Wow, that’s a lot of tricks and treats!  

Whether you go all out celebrating Halloween by decorating the house and lawn for trick-or-treaters, or you just dress up the kids and yourself and go out cavorting about for candy, here are some ways to make your Halloween a little “greener” for your wallet and for the environment. 

Free Costume – Check out online free swap sites like Freecycle.org for costume swap events or just make a post about the costume you are looking for. Freecycle is a large online community and typically someone has what you are looking for or knows someone that does. 

Thrift Shop Finds – Most thrift shops and Goodwill stores have Halloween sections at this time of year and you can find some crazy items on the cheap to make a creative costume yourself. Step outside of the box and design a unique costume for yourself…be creative! This is probably the one time of the year that you can be outlandishly creative and feel confident that your efforts will be appreciated. 

Pillow Cases – Instead of buying candy collection bags or plastic containers for your trick-or-treaters, use an old pillow case or gift bag. They are both reusable and hold a lot of candy.

Pumpkin stuff – Pumpkins are so much more than just a scary face this time of year. Use the insides for soup or pie and you can roast the pumpkin seeds for a delicious snack. You can easily find many recipes online. When your jack-o-lantern has outstayed its welcome and begins to wither, toss it in your compost pile. 

Up-cycle and Recycle Items for Decorations – It’s fun to decorate your yard and house, but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Tombstones for a graveyard scene can be made from old cardboard or broken plywood scraps that you write on with markers or chalk. Broken leafless tree limbs scattered in your yard make any scene eerie, and you can lay old stuffed shirts around the yard like bodies to complete your graveyard scene. There are lots of ways to decorate without buying items, just look around your house, broken and dusty items placed in your yard, or on the porch, can make any scene look deserted and spooky. 

Bring awareness to an issue. You can use this costume opportunity to not only be creative, but also to raise awareness. You can dress up as an extinct animal or species to bring awareness to an important issue or you could hand out materials educating neighbors (you give the “treat”) about an important neighborhood or community issue as you walk your little ones around. 

Halloween can be lots of fun without the loaded price tag and waste. Put your “Halloween eyes” on and look around for decorating ideas and costume inspirations that allow you to use what you already have sitting around your house, garage and yard. Save your money and have a safe and happy Halloween!