Zero Waste Halloween 2024

With #Halloween just a weeks away not only do we have some tips and hint to help you make your Halloween more waste free, but we have some activities locally that can help you have a fun but zero waste free time.

1. Halloween Costumes

Every year almost 7 million Halloween costumes are thrown away this equals to around 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste. 🎃 The majority of Halloween outfits are made from polyester, an oil-based plastic and most people then chuck out used costumes after single use !! 👻 Landfill is literally full of scary apparel!

This year not only have we got some ideas for you but we have some spooktacular news! We are having a Children’s Halloween Costume Swap at Acton Market on Friday 25th October from 3.30pm to 5pm. Come along and find something spooky to wear!

If you have unwanted items that are clean and usable for other children, drop them off at the following pop up drop off places in and around Acton and Ealing until Thursday 24th. See full details and drop off points here.

Unable to join us at the swap? Don’t worry, here are some ideas you can get up this Halloween

  1. Set up a costume swap at your child’s school or class or you even at your university or place of work !
  2. Donate old costumes to charity shops or to Halloween costume amnesty’s
  3. Encourage your friends and family to get creative and make their own costumes.
  4. Buy a second-hand costume from a charity shop
  5. Hire one from a costume shop.
  6. Upcycle your old costume using what you have in the house !

Whatever you do, don’t buy new!!!

2. Halloween Decorations

Instead of decorating your house with brand new plastic spooky skeletons, inflatable grave tombs and plastic light up pumpkins .. A Zero-waste Halloween décor is your ideal solution.

  1. You can use old fabric, clothes, cardboard and garden waste, like twigs or leaves, to create spooky decorations.
  2. Hold a Halloween decoration swap with friends or family or at school or work .
  3. Have a look in charity shops and pick up second hand items
  4. Buy eco-friendly decorations that can be recycled or reused for next year.

We have found this great blog about how you can to organise a Halloween Costume Swap with a free canva template for your promo. Click here

4. Smashing pumpkins taste great

It’s likely that over Halloween, over 39.9 million pumpkins will take the streets, and 22.2 million will go to waste. That totals over £32.6 million worth of edible food waste and with a #costoflivingcrisis going on we can all get on board and aim for a zero waste Halloween.

All pumpkin varieties are edible – just make sure to go for an orange one and turn the flesh into some thing tasty !

Here is super easy pumpkin soup recipe for you to use up the pumpkin flesh!

Easy Pumpkin Desert – Roasted Pumpkin with Maple Syrup and Spices

Ingredients:

  • 1 pumpkin, halved and seeds removed
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven: Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
  2. Prepare pumpkin: Place the pumpkin halves cut-side down on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and brush with maple syrup. Sprinkle with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and pepper.
  3. Roast: Roast the pumpkin for 45-60 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork.
  4. Serve: Let the pumpkin cool slightly before serving. Scoop out the flesh and enjoy on its own or as a side dish.

Optional toppings:

  • A dollop of whipped cream
  • A sprinkle of cinnamon
  • A drizzle of honey
  • A scoop of vanilla ice cream

Enjoy your delicious roasted pumpkin!

3. Trick or Treat

So if you are rushing out today to stock up on the sugar treats for trick or treaters remember sweet wrappers can’t be recycled as they are often made from multiple materials, e.g., plastic or paper with aluminium.

We can’t recycle these materials together, making sweet wrappers impossible to recycle.

If you are buy sweets today buy them in glass jars so you can reuse the jar for future use.

If you have time, bake Halloween treats and split them so trick-or-treaters receive a home-baked, waste-free goodie!

Useful links

Here are some useful link to help you;

  • Click here to read Halloween waste busting tips
  • Click here to find out about Halloween activities for kids
  • Click here for spooky sewing tips
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