Photo © Robert and Linda Mitchell
Halloween has quickly become the sixth-biggest spending holiday in the United States — with consumers expected to spend more than $5 billion this season on candy, costumes, decorations and parties.
But a lot of that spending will buy stuff that's not good for the environment, including:
- Chocolate that's unsustainably harvested;
- Prepackaged costumes made of unrecyclable materials;
- Lighted decorations that suck energy like a vampire; and
- Pumpkins trucked in from thousands of miles away (and then smashed or unceremoniously thrown away).
Below we present a few thoughful changes that can make your Halloween as green as Frankenstein and render your friends speechless at the horror of their eco-unfriendly ways.
Candy: When it comes to trick-or-treat, everyone's a candy freak. But besides the high-fructose corn syrup hangover you'll have the next day, you'll feel positively ghoulish at the environmental and human costs of conventionally grown cacao beans — the base element of chocolate.
The mass production of cacao means that it's now often grown in full sun instead of its natural shady habitats — so farmers ward off disease with massive amounts of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Boo! Here are some alternatives:.
- Endangered Species Chocolate, a company that sources its shade-grown cacao from small, family-owned farms in Nigeria, sells bite-sized squares of dark or milk chocolate for Halloween. They come in orange and black wrappers and have no processed sugar, hydrogenated fats, or pesticides and growth hormones. Endangered Species also donates 10 percent of its net profits to help support endangered species and their habitats as well as social causes.
- Global Exchange sells fair-trade chocolate, trick-or-treat action kits (with recycled tote bag and information about fair trade) and traditional Mexican Day of the Dead decorations such as Papel Picado Mexican Streamers — a 10-foot chain of 18 dangling paper skeletons that add a spooky ambiance to any party.
- Serve apples or slices of pumpkin bread instead (see below for organic sources.)
- For a long list of high-fructose corn syrup candy alternatives, see The Green Guide's healthy Halloween guide.
Pumpkins: What says Halloween more than those endless strings of goopy seeds and guts you get every time you carve a pumpkin?
But here's something really scary: Commonly used pesticides for conventionally grown pumpkins include malathion and diazinon, which are toxins for the human nervous system.
Fortunately, it's not hard to find organically grown or pesticide-free jack-o-lanterns near you: Local Harvest.org offers a searchable nationwide list of farmer's markets, family farms that sell to the public and other sources of sustainably grown food. Make it an outing and pick your own pumpkins and apples!
And when Halloween's over, be sure to compost your pumpkins, bury them, or place them in an out-of-the-way place in your yard to serve as a treat for passing wildlife. The
National Zoo also recommends roasting your pumpkin's seeds at 250 degrees for one hour to serve as a tasty snack for birds and other wildlife throughout the winter.
One other tip: Instead of carving pumpkins, cut faces into peeled apples and soak them in one cup lemon juice mixed with one tablespoon salt. If you then put these out in the air for a week, they'll shrivel into ghastly, deformed visages!
Costumes: No, we're not going to tell you to cut two holes out of a sheet and throw it over your head. But there are better alternatives to those flimsy prepackaged outfits that never seem to fit, anyway:
- Suite 101.com suggests 10 eco-friendly costume ideas, from Al Gore to a globe that's warming to rising sea levels. Our favorite: the compact fluorescent light bulb. Put on a tight, white turtleneck and slim white pants or tights, then inflate a dozen long white balloons, tie them end to end, and "wrap them around you from chest to hips for that unique, spiral-bound light-bulb look."
- From a skunk to a soda can, here's a long list of homemade Halloween costume ideas.
- Post on craigslist that you're looking for a used Halloween costume, or check out your local Goodwill store — always a popular place during Halloween — for vintage clothing and kitschy period wear.
Tote Bags: You probably know the eco-crimes of plastic bags — they litter, kill marine animals, persist as pollutants for many years and take a lot of energy to make. And the production of paper bags requires more than 14 million trees annually.
So just say no to both paper and plastic with resuable cotton Halloween print bags or totes made of bamboo, hemp, organic cotton, recycled cotton, or recycled PET.
Lights: Finally, it wouldn't be Halloween without spooky lights and flickering candles. Choose green options such as beeswax candles instead of petroleum-based ones and light-emitting diodes, which could save you up to 90 percent on your holiday energy bill. Or just turn the lights off and look at the moon, which will have just passed full on the 31st! Owwwooooooo!
Want more tips?
Visit our Enviro-Tips archive.
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