How to Have a Green Halloween

4 min readOct 27, 2019

Written By: Erica Leung

The thrill of dressing up in costumes, eating an enormous amount of chocolate and candy, and carving pumpkins may make Halloween seem like one of the most exciting days of the year, but unfortunately, this spooky holiday comes with a heavy cost and a scary aftermath in the form of candy wrappers, wasteful decorations and costumes that end up in the landfill.

Our Project Zero Waste event this past Friday during Waste Reduction Week (Oct 21–25th) has inspired me to look up ways on how I can reduce my waste footprint this year! Stay tuned for another blog post about how we hosted our first ever zero waste event and what we’ve learned from it.

Meanwhile, with Halloween right around the corner, here are some sustainable suggestions you can consider:

1. CANDY/CHOCOLATE

I was really curious about what options there are to give out zero waste candy and chocolate as a lot of this stuff you find in the supermarket cannot be recycled. Nestlé is one of the top plastic polluters in the world and although they are making some progress to eliminate their use of single-plastics, we, as consumers can take our own precautions when deciding what to buy.

What to look for:

- Compostable Wrappers: Like Arbor Tree’s Matcha Crisp Dark Chocolate Bar compostable wrapper!

- Recyclable Wrappers: Chocolate bars with paper packaging on the outside and a foil-layer on the inside can be recycled, as long as you are careful when ripping. Small pieces are likely to not be recycled when they arrive at the recycling facility. Mini cardboard boxes can be recycled too (ex. Smarties, Nerds, Dots). Companies like TerraCycle, a waste management company that has their own ways to deal with hard-to-recycle materials, can help with diverting waste from landfills, but sometimes at a cost. TerraCycle boxes are sold online and at Staples. The Snack Wrapper Program, a small box (10”x10”x18”) costs $86 and comes with a prepaid shipping label.

- Or make your own home-made candy and chocolate in recyclable/compostable wraps or bags or even package-free. For example, melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix nuts or fried fruits that you can find in your local bulk store.

2. COSTUMES

Opt out of purchasing costumes that you’ll probably only wear one time, and head on over to a second-hand clothing store or get creative using some DIY ideas at home! Up-cycle items in your home and come up with a costume that will surprise your friends. You can also look for costume swaps on Facebook neighbourhood groups, at local schools and community centres.

3. DECORATIONS

Who doesn’t love decorating their homes with crazy and spooky ghosts and skeletons? This year, you can be creative and use items in your own home to make cute decorations for your Halloween party. Like using cereal cardboard boxes to make tombstones to turn your front-yard into a cemetery or creating spider silhouettes. Also, try to opt out on painting your pumpkins or use non-toxic paint instead, and remember to COMPOST YOUR PUMPKINS after!