Making Halloween and Christmas fun *and* sustainable

I saw a ghostly crisp packet in the road last night – it seemed to be positively luminous but it was just reflecting the street lights. This, plus a black dog in evil demon costume, reminded me we are fast approaching Halloween, which is a great opportunity for harmless fun. Ghoulish costumes to startle passers-by, sweets to enjoy, maybe some ancient magic spells …

Photo by Beth Teutschmann on Unsplash

However, like the plastic crisp packet, Halloween and Christmas can be very wasteful - if we are not careful. Cheap (plastic) spooky costumes that we wear once and then throw away and sweet wrappers that do not get recycled – these are the main sources of extra waste at Halloween. WRAP has much to say about this.

Here are some easy ways to reduce waste at Halloween and Christmas:

• If you are making sweets, wrap them in decorative paper that you can compost later, or perhaps edible rice paper. You can make designs with different colours.
• Swap your costumes from last year with a friend or make your own from recycled materials.
• If your carved pumpkin is too old to eat, make sure it goes to make compost rather than landfill. You should remove candle wax first, though, unless it is organic. 

It is probably too late to swap costumes for Halloween, but if you fancy a pre-loved Christmas Jumper (going for a song) visit the special Swish at the Grand Arcade on Sun Nov 17th.

Have fun!