Who doesn’t love the excitement leading up to Halloween?

From spooky decorations to creative costumes and trick-or-treaters roaming the streets, it’s one of the most fun nights of the year, but it’s also one of the most wasteful. Once the costumes are packed away and the decorations get taken down, we are left with piles of plastic packaging, single-use costumes made of synthetics, and candy wrappers that end up in landfill, or even worse litter the streets ending up in our water drains, and then in the oceans. 

Celebrating a plastic free Halloween is easier than you think and can be just as fun. With a little creativity and some clever swaps, you can celebrate Halloween while also being kinder to our planet. This year our community has shared their favourite ways to cut down on plastic while still enjoying the festivities of Halloween.

Related: Your Comprehensive Guide to a Plastic Free Christmas

The Scary Truth About Halloween Waste 

Halloween might only last for one night, but the environmental impact lasts for much longer. A report by the environmental charity Hubbub (1) found that 83% of Halloween costumes sold in stores are made from non-recyclable plastic materials like polyester, equivalent to roughly 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year in the UK alone. That is the same as 83 million plastic bottles, all from costumes just worn once. 

According to the National Retail Federation (2) 73% of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year, which is estimated to produce 2,000 tons of plastic waste annually. Trick-or-treating creates mountains of plastic wrappers that can’t be recycled. Decorations such as fake cobwebs, plastic pumpkins, and novelty toys are often made from PVC or polystyrene, which can take hundreds of years to break down. Even pumpkins themselves are part of the problem. In 2022, around 22 million pumpkins (3) were thrown away after Halloween instead of being eaten or composted. 

While Halloween is meant to be a night of fun, its environmental impact tells a scarier story. 

Related: 9 Best Plastic Free Christmas Crackers for an Eco-friendly Festive Season

9 Tips for a Zero Waste Halloween: Eco-Friendly Costumes, Decorations and Treat Ideas  

At I’m Plastic Free we help you eliminate the issue at the source. For all the reasons outlined above, we provide our readers with alternative solutions to plastic that do not release microplastics.

This post contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. This helps us continue the hard work we put into researching products and solutions.

We asked our community for their best plastic free Halloween ideas and they shared some spectacular tips! Here’s how you can make this Halloween fun and eco-friendly:

Plastic Free Hallowen Costumes Ideas

1. DIY Halloween Costumes 

Instead of buying costumes wrapped in plastic and made from non-recyclable materials, try making your own from home with materials you already have such as old scarves, old bed sheets and anything else you can find made of natural fibers.

Easy to DIY costumes are ghosts, witches, or magicians.

2. Second-Hand Halloween Costumes 

Check out op shops or online marketplaces like Facebook for costumes and accessories. Second-hand shopping reduces plastic packaging waste, saves money, and often uncovers some one-of-a-kind pieces.

3. Swap Halloween Costumes with Your Friends 

Do you also have a bag of Halloween costumes a home? Throw a pre-Halloween party and invite your friends to bring their pre-loved and pre-used costumes too. Then swap them, so each of you has something new to wear this year! We are sure that hats, scarves, capes, or masks, are items that can be swapped easily no matter a person’s size.

4. Hire a Halloween Costume 

If you are invited to a “serious” Halloween party, think about hiring a nice Halloween dress. You can dream of being someone else for a night without guilt, as your costume will be cleaned, sanitised and then ready to be rented to another person and reused, promoting a circular economy. 

5. Reusable Trick-or-Treat Bags 

Say goodbye to plastic bags! Use fabric totes, pillowcases, or small backpacks for collecting treats. They’re durable, cute, and can be used year after year. Alternatively, use a basket you have at home, but please do not buy new plastic pumpkin baskets. They are made cheaply and break easily, ending up in landfills because they can’t be recycled.

6. Plastic Free Paper Treat Halloween Bags or Party Favors

If you don’t have any reusable Holloween treat bag in your home already, then you can purchase paper treat bags that have been pre maid with Halloween themes. They are also great as party favors if you have multiple kids at home celebrating. We have seen Halloween cellophane bags for sale, but be careful about these products. Only cellulose cellophane is biodegradable. Plastic cellophane and other synthetic films do not break down naturally in the soil and may persist for hundreds of years. If you buy these products, ask the manufacturer if they have home composting certification. 

Check them out on Amazon USA – Canada – UK – Australia

Related: Reusable Gift Wrapping. How To Furoshiki?

Plastic Free Halloween Candies

7. Hand Out Plastic Free Treats like Seasonal Fruit 

Swap candies in single-use plastic wrappers for healthy, plastic-free treats like apples, oranges, grapes, or mini pumpkins. Not only is it better for the planet, but kids get a tasty, nutritious surprise! One of our readers who lives in the tropics mentioned that one year some kids came knocking on her door and she didn’t have any ‘normal’ treats, so she gave them a mango instead. The kids were stoked! So, be creative in what you hand out! 

Related: Plastic Free Toys. Do Eco-friendly Alternatives to Plastic Toys Exist?

Plastic Free Halloween Decorations

8. Use Real Pumpkins (Without Wasting Them!) and other Natural Decorations  

Carving out a pumpkin is THE Haloweeen tradition per se. Don’t buy a virgin plastic pumpkin decoration. The idea of celebrating such festivities is to carve the pumpkin with your kids, and do an activity together! After the carving, don’t waste the pumpkin flesh! Instead, use it to make a delicious soup like a creamy roasted pumpkin soup. The seeds can be roasted and can be used as a nutritious, zero waste snack perfect for the spooky Halloween night.

When Halloween is finished, the rest of the pumpkin can be washed, and used for soup, yes, including the skin if you have a non-toxic blender, since most nutrients are under the skin. This makes it a truly zero waste decoration.

9. Create Eco-Friendly Halloween Decorations with What You Have at Home

 Upcycling keeps plastic and other materials out of landfill and adds a creative, unique touch. You can also get really creative and use natural materials such as leaves and pumpkins to decorate! Here are some upcycling ideas:

• Turn glass jars, and bottles into lanterns
• Turn scrap fabrics into banners and spooky silhouettes
• Decorate leaves as in the image below
• Use cream / white wool to create natural cob webs
• Use pine cones with old pipe cleaner chenille stems you have already at home to create giant spiders

Image credit: Unknown/Facebook

Related: 9 Sustainable Christmas Tree Ideas for Eco-friendly Celebrations

Q & A 

What About Synthetic Halloween Decorations like Fake Cobwebs and Plastic Pumpkins?

Synthetic decorations, like plastic spiderwebs, can entangle wildlife, while most PVC décor takes hundreds of years to break down. Natural decorations like pumpkins, paper bats, or reusable items are much safer for the planet and wildlife.

Conclusion 

Halloween is all about creativity, community, and fun, but it doesn’t have to come with a heavy environmental cost. By making simple swaps, like DIY costumes, reusable bags, eco-friendly decorations, and plastic-free treats, we can reduce the thousands of tons of plastic waste produced each year while still celebrating in style.

This Halloween, think green, get creative, and enjoy a spooky, sustainable celebration.

Do you have any questions or comments? Or may a tip we didn’t consider? Let us know in the comments section below.

References:

(1) https://www.fairylandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-Plastics-Clothing-and-Costumes-Report-2019.pdf
(2) https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-consumer-survey-finds-halloween-spending-to-reach-record-13-1-billion
(3) https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/news-views/the-problem-with-pumpkins-reducing-food-waste-at-halloween/

This article was written by Ella Matthews, and reviewed by I’m Plastic Free Editor, Simona Paganetto

Related posts:

The 10 Best Zero-Waste Cleaning Products 9 Best Plastic Free Christmas Crackers for an Eco-Friendly Festive Season Green Your Game: A “Plastic-Free Sports” Approach