Your Green Review

Halloween is almost here!  Time to sneak treats, assume alternate identities, run around in the dark…and create massive amounts of solid waste? Yup, from trashed pumpkins and plastic decorations to single use costumes and candy wrappers we generate tons (litterally) of garbage every Halloween.  YGR’s Green Halloween Guide is the first stop on your path to a ghoulishly Greener holiday!

Costumes:

• Host a costume-swap at school, church or in your home! It’s free, fun and keeps costumes out of the trash!

• Check out Freecycle.org for costumes and a way to recycle your costumes after Halloween.

• Purchase used: Craigslist, garage sales, the thrift store and ebay are great starting places
• Make your own!  Use what you’ve got around the house to come up with creative costumes this year.  Check back with us for an upcoming blog on Green Halloween Costumes.
• Purchase items you know you’ll reuse in the future for costume props.  Use anything from necessities (like toilet paper rolls or food items) to non-neccesities you’ll get use out of down the road (like BPA-free bottles for a ‘baby’ costume).
• If you do purchase a costume this year be sure to stay away from vinyl, a common (and phthalate-containing) costume hazard that wreaks havoc on personal health and the environment.  Steer clear of the ’shower curtain smell’.

Makeup:

• The cosmetics industry as a whole lacks adequate monitoring and Halloween makeup is no exception.  Aveda, Real Purity, Logona, Sante Kosmetics and PinkQuartzMinerals all provide safe makeup lines for your little pumpkin!
• Make your own blood and guts (it’s super easy, cheap and quick).  Find recipes at Budget101.com
• Be sure to check out the ‘Read More’ section below for The Green Guide’s article on Halloween makeup hazards.

Treats:

• Start a program through your school to collect used wrappers this year to sell to Terracycle.  They will reuse the refuse and make a donation to the school or organization of your choice.  Encourage parents to distribute (then collect) these healthy treats this year and raise funds at the same time: Stony Field yogurt cups, Honest Kids drink pouches and Nature Valley granola bars (see website for more details)
• Purchase: Organic, Fair Trade, minimally packaged or sugar-free treats and snacks. Examples: Endangered Species Chocolate Bug Bites, Fair Trade Gold Coins, Captain Teao’s Tea For Kids, Fruit Leathers, TerraChips, Bare Fruit, Nature’s Path, Can Do Kids and more.
• Distribute Fair Trade Trick-or-Treat Action Kits and help raise awareness about forced child labor in the production of conventional cocoa along with Fair Trade chocolates. (Thanks to gatheringhome.com for the info!)
• Ditch the plastic trinkets and hand out crayons, colored pensils, seed packets, play dough, wooden toys, and cartoon bandaids (fun and useful!).  Or make fun shaped glycerine soaps, go to Half Price Book’s discount section and pick up some second hand books for $1, try tying healthy cookie recipes around small cookie cutters or come up with other affordable prizes to encourage exploration and foster some healthy fun.

Goodie Bags:

• Do away with plastic bags and containers! We chuck of millions, even trillions of them each year.  Instead, pick up a canvas, hemp or cotton totes, let your kids go ape painting them then reuse them at the grocery.
• Make your own candy container to coordinate with your eco-friendly costume (i.e., a cardboard box decorated with screws and bolts-which can be put back in the garage later- to go along with a recycled robot costume)
• If you do purchase a bag, make it one you can reuse at the store or next year.  Check out Chico Bag for some ‘eek-o-fabulous’ plastic alternatives.

Decoration:

• Replace plastic streamers and throw-away decorations with natural/recycled art deco.
• Fallen tree boughs, pinecones, cornhusks, apples and a pumpkin can be creatively displayed (and the fruit later eaten) around the house.
• Use non-toxic window paints and get the kids active in morphing your home into a Halloween haven!
• Get some extra life out of those burnt out bulbs by painting faces or designes on top and displaying in a basket of twigs, leaves and straw; reuse tin cans before recycling to create luminaries; paint old bed sheets for a spooky backdrop.  Check out RiverWired for more recycled Halloween decorations.

Pumpkins:

• Remember to compost your pumpkins! Americans throw away millions of pumpkins each year which take up valuable lanfill space and contribute to our massive methane emissions (a more powerful Greenhouse Gas than C02).
• Buy organic or hand pick from a local farmer if possible.
• Save the seeds and bake for a seasonal treat or set out for the birds.

Misc:

• Avoid driving your child around the neighborhood-idling wastes gas and, of course, emits harmful C02.
• Turn house lights off if you’ll be sitting on the porch handing out candy.
• Put out a recycling container for all the passers-by looking to ditch bottles of water, paper and other recyclable materials.

Read More:

The Green Guide.  Halloween Horrors: Tales from the Cosmetologist (Article)

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/92/halloweenmasks