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. 

Related: I’m Plastic Free’s Curated Halloween Section on Amazon

How Much Waste Does Halloween Produce Each Year? 

Costumes 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. 

Plastic Candy Wrappers and Decoration Waste

According to the National Retail Federation (2), 74% of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year. Encouragingly, 34% of shoppers say they’ll look for items they can reuse in future years. 96% of shoppers plan to buy candy, worth $4.1 billion. Decorations will account for $4.3 billion.

Trick-or-treating creates mountains of plastic wrappers that can’t be recycled. Decorations such as fake spider webs, plastic pumpkins, and novelty toys are often made from toxic Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) or polystyrene, which can take hundreds of years to break down.

Food Waste

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:

Related: Your Comprehensive Guide to a Plastic-free Christmas

What are Zero-waste 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, mummies, or magicians.

2. Second-hand Halloween Costumes 

Check out thrift stores 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, sanitized and then ready to be rented to another person and reused, promoting a circular economy. 

What are Ideas for Plastic-free Halloween Candies and Treats?

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.

Check this plastic-free burlap reusable favor bag on Amazon

6. Plastic-free Halloween-themed Paper Treat 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-made with Halloween themes. They are also great as party favors if you have multiple kids at home celebrating. 

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

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. 

Image Credit: Amazon

7. Hand Out Plastic-free Treats like Seasonal Fruit 

Swap candies in single-use plastic wrappers for healthy, plastic-free treats like mandarines, 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! 

What about some mandarines decorated as mini Halloween pumpkins? It’s very easy to do this. All you need is mandarines and a black marker.

Image Credit: I’m Plastic Free’s editor, Simona Paganetto, has been decorating some mandarines to make them resemble mini Halloween pumpkins.

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

What are Examples of Plastic-free Halloween Decorations?

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

Carving out a pumpkin is THE Halloween 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 

– Why are fake spider webs bad for Halloween?

Fake spider webs, and other synthetic Halloween decorations and props, can entangle wildlife and pose a serious risks to the environment. Plus, synthetic items take hundreds of years to break down.

– What can I use instead of a plastic trick-or-treat bucket?

Use a fabric tote, pillowcase, small backpack or a basket you already own. These are durable and reusable year after year, unlike cheap plastic pumpkin buckets that break easily and can’t be recycled. If you need party favors, choose paper treat bags, and avoid cellophane unless it’s certified home-compostable cellulose.

– What plastic-free treats can I give trick-or-treaters?

Swap plastic-wrapped candy for seasonal fruit like mandarins, apples, oranges, grapes or mini pumpkins. For a fun touch, draw jack-o’-lantern faces on mandarins with a black marker. Treats sold in paper packaging also work well. Kids often love the surprise, and you avoid wrappers that can’t be recycled.

– How can I make my pumpkin zero waste?

Carve a real pumpkin instead of buying a plastic one, then use every part. Cook the flesh into soup, roast the seeds for a healthy snack, and after Halloween, wash the pumpkin and cook it too if it’s still fresh, skin included. Whatever you can’t eat should go in the compost, not the bin.

Related: Reusable Gift Wrapping. How To Furoshiki?

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.

References:

(1) Rose, C. (2019). Halloween clothing & costumes survey 2019. Fairyland Trust; Hubbub.

(2) National Retail Federation. (2026). NRF Halloween Survey Shows Consumer Spending Expected to Reach $13.5 Billion [2026 Press release].

(3) Frost, A. (2022). The problem with pumpkins: Reducing food waste at Halloween. Sustainable Food Trust.

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

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Do you have any questions or comments? Or maybe a tip we didn’t consider?

Let us know in the comments section below.