October is a month full of fun fall festivities, cooler weather, and Halloween! The air is crisp and many children are preparing for a holiday that they have been looking forward to all year. Many families and neighborhoods set up extravagant decorations outside of their houses, while other people partake in carving or decorating pumpkins, and many families take an annual trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch. During the days leading up to Halloween, many kids visit stores like Spirit Halloween or Party City to pick out their desired costumes. However, the question we ask every year is, what happens to these retired costumes?

With this night full of fears and screams and its month-long preparation also comes detrimental impacts on our environment. Old Halloween costumes hang lifelessly in children’s closets, Halloween candy wrappers cover the streets, and decorations, including pumpkins, end up in landfills after Halloween and emit harmful methane gases.

Costumes

Halloween is typically the only night out of the whole year when you are able to dress up as whoever you want to be. Many children dress up in a solo costume, while other groups of friends try to match. Whatever costume you choose, it is fun to dress up and wear extravagant makeup.

Each year, many children and teenagers purchase at least one Halloween costume. However, these costumes are usually only worn once and either stay in their closet forever or are just simply thrown away. An estimated of 35 million Halloween costumes are thrown away in the United States each year. In addition, 40% of Halloween costumes are only worn once. These costumes are wasted instead of donated for reuse. To add to the problem, 83% of these Halloween costumes use non-recyclable plastic which will end up in landfills and take hundreds of years to degrade. This unsustainable material only adds to the already existing problem of environmental pollution. It is harder for these materials to decompose and end up polluting the landfills and the environment around them.

Candy

The popular excitement of trick-or-treating in a brand-new costume is the fall festivity that many children look forward to all month. This activity has been around since the early 1900s and is the only day when it is acceptable to ring people’s doorbells and ask for candy.

With the constant running up and down people’s driveways and going house to house to get candy, many kids get hungry and conveniently eat their candy from inside their pumpkin or bag. Many parents are usually absent during trick or treating, so kids throw their garbage on someone’s lawn. While this is obviously not acceptable, this is the hard truth of where children discard their wrappers, which leads to even more pollution. Because candy wrappers are plastic, many wildlife animals can mistake these wrappers for food and end up choking on them. In addition, these candy wrappers can end up in sewers.

Not only does eating too much candy have harmful health risks, but the physical wrapper of the candy also has negative impacts on the environment. These pretty and aesthetically pleasing candy wrappers are mainly composed of plastic and aluminum, which are nearly impossible to sort. As a result of their difficulty, they become stuck to other recyclables and end up becoming contaminants. In addition, because most candy wrappers are made up of multiple materials, it is difficult and expensive to break down and recycle these wrappers. Because of this inability to recycle them, candy wrappers end up in landfills. Instead of trying to recycle these candy wrappers, just throw them away because they are actually only causing more damage to the environment, as they are not able to be recycled.

Each year, there is about $400 million worth of uneaten candy from trick-or-treating. This is an extreme waste of food in the United States. This money could have been spent on more nutritious food or also could have been donated.

Decorations

Many houses purchase Halloween decorations to make their home look more scary and festive. Unfortunately, many of these decorations are made out of plastic. Old and torn-up Halloween decorations ultimately end up in landfills and take hundreds of years to break down.

In addition, many children like to decorate and carve pumpkins. These pumpkins become rotten after a month and end up in landfills, where they will decompose and eventually emit methane gas that contributes to climate change. If we keep these pumpkins out of landfills, we can reduce these harmful greenhouse gas emissions and help to protect our environment.

What Can You Do?

Halloween Costumes:

After retiring an old Halloween costume, you can donate this costume to places like Goodwill or even at a local clothing drive where hopefully another child in need can wear it and get a second use out of it. Otherwise, maybe a younger sibling or family member can reuse the costume.

Halloween Candy:

As parents, encourage your children to not litter and to pick up wrappers they find on the street. These little reinforcements can have a positive impact on our environment. Also, donate the extra candy to your local food pantry or try to give out the candy to family members.

Halloween Decorations:

Instead of decorating pumpkins for outdoor use, you can use pumpkins to bake fall treats that are more delicious. You can decorate these treats with anything and you are also able to eat them! Additionally, try and reuse old Halloween decorations instead of purchasing new ones each year.

Recap

October is a month full of fun fall festivities, cooler weather, and Halloween! However, Halloween also comes with detrimental impacts on our environment. Old Halloween costumes hang lifelessly in children’s closet, Halloween candy wrappers cover the streets, and decorations end up in landfills after Halloween, emitting harmful methane gases. An estimated 35 million Halloween costumes are thrown away in the United States each year. There is also about $400 million worth of uneaten candy from trick-or-treating. Pumpkins become rotten after a month and end up in landfills. They will eventually emit methane gas that will contribute to climate change. To keep Halloween costumes sustainable, you can donate your old costume to a local clothing drive where hopefully a child can get a second use out of it. In addition, as parents, encourage your children to not litter and to pick up wrappers they find on the street. Lastly, instead of decorating pumpkins for outdoor use, you can use pumpkins to bake fall treats that are more delicious! There are many alternatives and positive impacts in making Halloween more environmentally friendly.

References

1.Public Interest Research Group 2. San Jose Recycles 3. Next Gen Personal Finance