Sorry for the title, I was trying to be cute:/

Hi Friends and welcome back!

As some of you may know, Fall is my favorite season, and thus, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

However, many people do not think about how much waste the holiday, halloween, actually generates. Everything from decorations, candy, pumpkins, to costumes – tons are thrown into landfills every year.

For more information on 5 ways that Halloween is actually kind of terrifying, check out this article.

There are so many easy ways to make your Halloween more sustainable this year, and all it takes to find them is a simple google search and some research.

Most of the things that we enjoy during the Halloween season, can be found with eco-friendly/sustainable alternatives, here are a few…

Costumes

Around Halloween, many pop-up costumes begin to appear. While it is easy to go out and buy something that has everything you need in a pack, those costumes are not environmentally friendly. From the mass production of the products, to the chemicals used in the material, you might want to think twice before you buy a costumes from a retail store.

Instead, get creative, it is Halloween! Making your own costumes is not only more fun but it will likely save you close to $20, and you possibilities are endless.

So this year, I challenge you to make your own costumes. If you can sew, good for you and can you teach me? If you can’t, don’t worry, you can easily throw together a costume using pieces from local thrift stores, or you might even have one already in your closet!

Here are a few homemade ideas to inspire you…

Candy

While I could not find a real statistic on the amount of waste that is generate from halloween candy each year (now that I type it out, that might be hard to calculate), but I know that it is a very large number. It has been reported by the EPA, that over 30% of waste in a U.S. household comes from packaging, like that of a halloween candy bar.

For many reasons, all of which are good, most people hand out candy that is individually wrapped and well known. Most parents will not even let their kids accept homemade treats, just due to safety reasons. And, to make it worse. most candy wrappers are not recyclable.

I do not really have any tips on how to reduce this waste other than handing out something that comes in a recyclable material or fruit, but no one wants fruit.

However, Terracycle is a company that recycles hard to recycle products.

Do any of you have any suggestions on how to reduce candy waste?

Pumpkin’s

Instead of throwing out your pumpkin, this year use it all up. You can toast pumpkin seeds and eat them, this is my favorite way to make them, yum! Or, you can even use them to make homemade pumpkin oil – I am excited to try this out this year:)

As for the rest of the pumpkin, once it has served it use on your front porch, add that baby to your compost pile!

Make sure that you do not add pumpkins that have been painted or coated with sealant. Also, you want to make sure you do not throw the seeds in pile, or you might start your own pumpkin patch.

Do you have any more Sustainable Halloween tips? Share them with us and share the love:)

…Be sure to check out my next post…

You know all those skin care and body recipes on Pinterest, well I tried 10 of them and I will tell you what I think!

So far, I am not loving this whitening toothpaste.