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Food Waste is Spooky— 9 Tips To Reduce Waste This Halloween

October 24, 2022

Boo! Is there anything spookier than food waste? We don’t think so. That’s why we’ve compiled some ways to make your upcoming Halloween celebrations more sustainable and waste-free!

1. Use a reusable bag for your trick-or-treating! The classic pillowcase has never gone out of style and can fit a massive amount of candy. 
2. Use eco-friendly alternatives to treats. Use bulk candy in cardboard or cloth reusable bags for your friends. As for the neighborhood kids, individually wrapped candy is definitely the safer way to share food with strangers, but throw in other 10-cent treats like pencils, temporary tattoos, and more if you don’t want to buy the large plastic bags of candy full of many smaller plastic bags!
3. Don’t recycle candy wrappers. Most recycling plants do not accept the plastic wrap and will have to turn away massive loads of recycling if too much of the load isn’t recyclable. It’s best just to put these in the trash to ensure your recycling is actually recycled. 
4. But keep your aluminum! Aluminum foil covering like on Hershey’s kisses can be recycled if clean and clumped into a larger ball. Keep combining the aluminum foil with more aluminum products until it’s about the size of your fist, and it’s good to recycle. 

5. Hosting a party? Save the leftovers and compost the rest. Those trays and trays of spooky treats you made shouldn’t go to waste! Send people home with leftovers, or compost the remaining ghoulish greens. 
6. Use compostable silverware and cups! It will make the clean-up easier, and you don’t have to throw away more plastic. 
7. Prepare for the pumpkin-pocolypse! About 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins end up in the trash at the start of November (which creates a HUGE amount of methane). Here are 46 pumpkin-centric recipes that you can try to use up the remaining pumpkins after the festivities. And don’t forget, compost what you don’t eat (but only if they aren’t painted, acrylic paint doesn’t decompose well). The graveyard of pumpkins will eventually break down into a nutritious treat for your garden or someone else’s if your city has a composting program. 
8. Thrift your costume! Most costumes now are made with a lot of plastic fabrics, and despite costing an arm and a leg, you probably don’t want to wear the costume more than once. Get more bang for your buck by using your creativity and thrifting pieces for your costume. 
9. To build on the last point, donate your costume! You may have worn it three times in one weekend, but your costume will be brand new to someone else.