Green Your Halloween!

Halloween at our house is looked forward to with as much anticipation as Christmas. Surprisingly, statistically Halloween's popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. So every year we are presented with another opportunity to have fun and lessen the impact on our world. Here are some easy, fun and inexpensive ideas to "green" your Halloween.

Costumes

According to the group Green Halloween, if half the kids who celebrate Halloween swapped and reused costumes, landfill waste would be reduced by 6,250 tons annually. Wow! That's about the weight of 2,500 mid-size cars. Since we typically only wear them once, why not try the following tips to make an eco-difference.

• Check Your Local Classifieds: Whether it is Craigs list or Canada's Kijiji (http://kijiji.ca/) these sites contain lots of options. Tonight locally on the kijiji site, I found a pumpkin, ninja, snow white, spiderman, power ranger, witch, care bear, darth vador and tons more all for under $10. Some folks are also willing to just swap!
• Halloween Costume Swap - Speaking of swapping, recycle used costumes in the comfort of your home with friends. Invite at least 10 families with children of various ages so that there are plenty of options to choose from. Don't forget to have everyone use their imaginations and bring over any old costume jewelry, clothing or any other accessories that could be useful and fun. Serve Halloween themed drinks and food and have a great time.
• Second Hand Stores - Second Hand stores are always a treasure trove of unique and fun items for Halloween costumes for next to nothing. They can be so much fun and a source of inspiration if you are unsure of what to wear. Also don't forget to donate any old or left over costumes so they can be reused.
• Check your Closets - Don't forget to re-check your closets. You never know what you have until you check. I have personally reused the same basic black grim reaper gown for years and transformed it by using different accessories.
• Review Makeup Ingredients - Be careful especially with kids on colored hairsprays and makeup. As I blogged about in previous posts, cosmetics are highly unregulated. If you are unsure please use EWG Skin Deep (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/). The site rates tons of cosmetics including makeup, shampoo, conditioner, nail care and even sunscreens.  Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Ask yourself if you really need them.

Trick-or-Treating and Halloween Parties

Make Halloween parties and trick-or-treating memorable and earth friendly by:

• Generating Zero Waste - Don't use paper plates and napkins. If you have to buy something try to find compostable items.
• Decorate Naturally - use pumpkins, gourds, hay bale, create scare crows with old clothing etc.
• Reuse Decorations - Don't throw out your decorations, reuse them year to year. You can swap these with friends as well. When you add items to your collection try to buy items that contain recycled content.
• Serve Healthy Treats - Buy local, organic and pesticide free food for your parties. Hand out healthy snacks to children! Remember to bring a refillable water bottle when you are out walking.
• Use Green Energy - Walk door to door on Halloween night and don't take your car.

Cost Savings: We are reusing one of the kid's costumes, accessories for mine and all of our decorations for a cost savings of $20 - $50 this year.