Goblin Green Your Halloween

We love Halloween and all the fun that comes with it, but realize in recent years we’ve created a whole lot of waste in celebrating the holiday. This year we’ve made the commitment to green our Halloween with these simple ideas.  

Costume Swap

Did you know that unrecycled Halloween costumes amount to 6,250 tons of landfill waste? Does this statistic make you cringe? It may seem hard to believe, but if half of the families in America swapped Halloween costumes instead of buying new ones, we could cut down on a massive amount of waste. This year make your Halloween a little bit greener by swapping costumes at one of the local Halloween swaps happening this month. Or make your own costumes from recycled and recyclable materials, and swap them next year.

There are three costume swaps coming up in Portland this month and likely more we haven’t heard about. If you have information on school swaps or any in your neighborhood we’ve missed, please let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

Mississippi Treehouse Costume Swap

October 8^th

Noon – 3 pm

3742 N Mississippi

www.misstreehouse.com

 

Portland Hallowe’en Bizarre and Costume Swap

October 10^th

Noon – 6 pm

Oaks Park

www.portlandhalloweenbizarre.com

 

Portland Green Parenting Costume Swap

October 16^th-

Noon – 2 pm

3434 SE Milwaukie Avenue in Portland

www.portlandgreenparenting.com

 

It Doesn’t Have To Be All About The Candy

Go green this Halloween by giving out tricks and treasures to cut down on unrecyclable packaging and healthy treats to trick or treaters. Kids love the magic of Halloween, so why not hand out colored glass beads, shells, molded beeswax or stickers, and forego sugar filled candy bars. Other options for healthier snacks are organic fruit leathers, Lara Bars, vegan Angell Bars (healthy candy bars with organic ingredients) and packages of nuts and cranberries (you can find them at Trader Joe’s).

Green Your Decoration

Decorating for Halloween is a blast, but some of the decorations out there are pretty toxic and end up in the landfill. This year make your own from recycled materials. Use yard waste like fallen leaves and other green debris to stuff a scarecrow or other Halloween characters like mummies. Note: If your kids want more ghoulish décor, find alternatives in the kitchen to create fake blood or green skin. You an also decorate with a harvest theme with hay bales and cornstalks, things that can easily be used in the yard or composted. Finally, pumpkins; don’t leave them to rot on your front porch or throw them in the trash, instead compost them. And don’t forget to roast those pumpkin seeds, so delicious.

Category: Blog, Green/Eco, Holidays