The spooky season is upon us. Whether you love a good costume, pride yourself on how you transform your front lawn or maybe do a little of both, creativity comes out of the woodwork when it’s Halloween.
As you collect ideas for what you’ll wear and how you’ll decorate though, keep in mind the reusability potential of your purchases. Ask yourself how environmentally friendly they are. Even as you dish out loads of candy, you can make your Halloween ‘look’ possible using a few sustainable practices.
1. Make your own fake blood
Whether you need a little blood to enhance a costume, or a lot to creep out your decor, the packaged stuff is something to stay away from. It’s loaded with chemicals, and you can easily make non-toxic, fake blood on your own without any harmful ingredients. Plus, homemade blood doesn’t generate any packaging that ends up in the trash.
To make your own fake blood, all you need is corn syrup, chocolate syrup and red food coloring. Combine a cup of corn syrup with two tablespoons of chocolate syrup first, then slowly add in drops of red food coloring until you get the right shade of red. Mix well and drip away. This is even safe for the tops of your Halloween snacks.
2. Swap your mask for face paint
Many masks worn during Halloween are made out of non-recyclable materials. These plastic or rubber costume pieces do their duty for a night, but then end up in the trash. To avoid the waste, consider painting on a mask this year. Not only can face paint be more comfortable than a mask, but it won’t ever be too big or too hard to see out of.
To ensure your face paint is environmentally friendly on its own, make sure you buy products that don’t contain lead or other harmful ingredients and are cruelty-free.
3. Find a costume that’s new to you
Although most people like to dress up as something different each year, you don’t always have to buy something brand new. Most costumes aren’t worn very often before they pop up in thrift shops and other second-hand stores. Shopping here for Halloween allows you to reuse a costume even though it’s new to you, creating less waste.
If you decide you do want to buy something new, go for one of those multi-faceted costume items, like a black, hooded cape. You can transform it into something new year-after-year. At first, you might be the Phantom of the Opera, while opting for a vampire the next year.
4. Perfect your carving skills
Putting up Halloween decorations is fun, but many you buy in the store become trash the very next day. Taking advantage of all those seasonal gourds, consider creating your festive decor just with pumpkins. Not only will your decorations decompose once you’re done with them, but you can harvest the pumpkin seeds for a tasty snack and even make some pumpkin pie.
5. Work a little nature into your decor
Halloween is also a great time to look to nature for decoration. There’s usually no shortage of dried leaves, all in different colors, as well as long twigs and thin branches that have fallen off trees. Repurposing these items, even if you end up spray painting them black, allows you to decorate without creating more waste. Maybe you hide a Halloween sound machine in a pile of leaves and twigs to scare trick-or-treaters or add some string lights to create a creepy effect.
6. Repurpose what’s already at home
With an old sheet and some used newspaper, you too can create a Halloween ghost to hang in a front yard tree. Grab some glow-in-the-dark paint for the eyes and mouth, and your ghost will look even spookier when the sun sets. Once Halloween is over, you can fold back up your ghost and put them back in the linen closet until next year. Now you don’t have to worry about what to do with that old sheet that was just lying around.
Have a Happy Halloween
This is by no means an exhaustive list of how you can keep the Halloween spirit alive without creating more waste. Consider having a costume swap party with friends, renting a costume or even buying reusable decor pieces in addition to all these other ideas. You won’t have to sacrifice what makes the holiday special to you, but you will do a little good for the environment, which the planet and all of us at IMPACT COLLECTIVE appreciate, even on the spookiest night of the year.