Top tips for a green Halloween

Pumpkins are as synonymous with Halloween as Santa is with Christmas, but they’re a massive source of food waste at this time of year. Around 12.8 million pumpkins are carved and then wasted at Halloween – equivalent to 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin waste. This is enough to feed pumpkin pie to everyone in the UK! Also, pumpkins that end up in landfill release methane, which has 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.

Instead of throwing pumpkin flesh away, use it to make a tasty pie, stew or soup. Love Food Hate Waste has a great range of recipes – many of which are really easy and can be done with kids. Not keen on the flavour? Use the pumpkin flesh to whip up an organic beauty treatment. Pumpkins are bursting with vitamins and enzymes that will nourish skin and revitalise hair. Beauty blog Byrdie has a range of pampering pumpkin recipes, from hair masks to lip scrubs.

Even more of a zero-waste tip is to use non-toxic markers or water-based, natural mineral paints to draw on pumpkins and not carve them at all! That way they last for much longer and you’ll be able to use much more of it for food. You could even glitter up your pumpkin eco-friendly style, with some compostable glitter that can be washed off after use. 🎃🦄

ethy verified plant-based glitter brands:

Dressing up is the cornerstone of modern-day Halloween celebrations, but many of us opt for cheap and cheerful costumes made from non-recyclable material that are barely sturdy enough to withstand the night, never mind multiple wears. In fact, an estimated 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste – equivalent to 83m bottles – is generated from throwaway Halloween clothing every year in the UK.

Instead of splashing out on another store-bought costume that’ll end up in the bin, consider:

• Renting one from a costume shop. These are usually pretty high quality, so you’ll stand out from the usual cheap and tacky fancy dress.
• Swapping with friends. Raid a friend’s dressing-up box and let them do the same.

• Getting creative when putting together a costume with items you already own. You don’t really need to buy a pre-packaged ‘witch’s outfit’ if you already have a similar black dress. Similarly, use your lipstick for blood effect, rather than buy fake blood in plastic tubs.
• Always using only compostable glitter to avoid adding to microplastic pollution.

Here's a selection of ethy verified brands for costumes and makeup ideas:

This year’s Trick or Treating will likely still look a little different than usual still because of COVID-19, so individually-wrapped sweets and chocolates are a necessary evil. But you can limit your impact in this area by at least choosing treats that are Fairtrade, so you can be sure they’ve been sourced and produced in the most ethical way possible. And if your kids will be hitting the streets, send them out with a reusable bucket or pillowcase "ghost" to collect their haul.

Here are some brands to spark ideas for more sustainable options:

Choose your decorations with care, and opt for items that can be reused in the coming years, or at least easily recycled. A ceramic skull lantern will get multiple uses, for example, and a string of paper ghosts can be recycled. A plastic pumpkin garland or PVC door decorations, on the other hand, will soon be heading to a landfill.

Better still, ditch the store-bought stuff altogether and go on a pre-party walk to gather up sticks, branches, dried leaves and dead flowers. Add some creepy mood lighting and sustainably made candles and voilà, an authentic and unsettling atmosphere that’s far spookier than novelty skeletons and plastic bunting!

Explore a selection of ethy verified sustainable brands below that offer a variety of candles we like for reasons such as:

• Vegan soy wax candles, hemp wax candles
• Cotton and linen wicks
• FSC-certified wooden wicks
• Locally made candles, handcrafted in the UK
• Natural essential fragrance oils