Halloween is approaching and soon the streets will be filled with superheroes, popstars and barbies, and yards will be covered with inflatable spiders and cackling witches. A lot of the traditions associated with Halloween contribute to pollution and landfill, but there are more sustainable ways to celebrate.
Retail costumes are often made in manufacturing plants that contribute to air and water pollution, and they feature a lot of plastic and synthetic materials that end up in landfills. Some ideas to create less waste are to donate costumes, rent a costume, make a costume or rewear or reuse parts from another year.
Then, after you wear your costume this year, you can donate it locally so it can be used again by someone else. This keeps the costume out of landfill, factories from making another one and possibly provides a costume for a kid who would not otherwise have one. If you have any old costumes from past years, or even parts, you can donate those too.
Another option is renting a costume. This can have a similar effect as donation, in that the costume can be used many times by different people and reduces the consumption of new costumes. Renting a costume is also much cheaper than buying something you may never wear again. Places such as Cynthia’s Costumes & Parties, House of Humor, Haight Street Costumes, The Belrose Costume Shop and Nikki’s Costume Creations all offer renting services.
If you enjoy doing art, another great option is making your own costume. This reduces pollution from factories and shipping, and many times you can choose to use higher quality materials than the factories that are making cheaper single use costumes. Even if you do not enjoy making things, you can easily assemble costumes from clothes and accessories you may already have.
A final idea is reusing and rewearing. There are many costumes you would have no reason to ever wear again, but others can easily be made at least partly from articles of clothing or accessories you could rewear separately.
Another way to be more sustainable for the upcoming holiday is through decorations. The autumn season, and Halloween specifically, is a popular occasion for decorating homes and yards, but there are ways that are better for the environment. Some easy options are reusing decorations, donating decorations, making decorations and using natural decorations. Most of these are the same idea as the costumes, reusing, donating and making, to limit landfill and pollution, but there are also some easy natural decorations. You can easily make fall scented candles, candle holders, wreathes, and more. Pumpkins of course are an important part of halloween and are another example of a natural decoration, and some easy things for you to do after are baking using the pumpkin, or just properly composting.
