The Spooky Seasons Eerie Impacts 👻

As this spooky season starts, supermarkets are stocking up, pumpkin patches are at the ready and the nights draw in quicker, now is the time to consider your influence on the impact of Halloween and as ever, if everyone made some small changes, the cumulative impact would be substantial.

All Hallows Eve has multiple environmental impacts from pumpkin growing and use, costumes, plastic and more. In terms of carbon, for every 1kg of pumpkin produced in an open field, 0.27kg CO₂eq. is emitted and requires substantial amounts of water.[i]. Further to this a staggering 8 million pumpkins will be thrown out within the UK[ii] with a lot of these ending up in landfill emitting harmful methane, which is >20 times more warming than CO₂[iii].

Another impact of Halloween is the plastic used throughout the holiday. Plastic is in numerous products throughout Halloween such as buckets, costumes, sweet wrappers and more. Costumes often have a plastic content of up to 90%. Other single use items are impactful and switching to items with recycled content or which can be reused is an important step to take to help the environment and your wallet. By reusing your items from last year or buying items with the intent to reuse you can reduce your carbon footprint this Halloween. And if you children have outgrown Halloween (or the costumes) pass them on for use by others. Below the figure shows the carbon impact of using clothing (the costumes) which have been brought new compared to the impact of reusing a costume. There is a 99% decrease in associated emissions.

An example for those who like to be crafty, a member of our team, decorated a large yoghurt tub which they have been using for multiple years and still intend to fill up when trick or treating. Another option is to paint an old pillowcase and paint or tape designs onto the case depending on if the pillowcase will be used again yearly. The essence of these options is to repurpose what you often already have.

Last year we released a blog the Dark Side of Halloween [iv]with tips and tricks to reduce your carbon impact of Halloween. This year were following on from that and providing you with more ideas to undertake this spooky season:

Rent a costume / reuse a costume – Rent a costume or swap with family members and friends or purchase a second-hand costume. Reuse of clothes can save reduce your impact instead of buying new as it uses less plastics and carbon.
Use your pumpkin – To avoid 8 million pumpkins going to waste, use all the pumpkin you can, to create meals or snacks. Did you know that pumpkin and the skin is good for your four-legged friends in moderation.
Compost your pumpkin residue – Composting your pumpkin is a great way to stop pumpkins ending up in landfill this year. Break your pumpkin up into smaller pieces before being composted to help the process, due to the high-water content.
Make your own treats – Instead of buying sweets in plastic wrapping, make you own sweet treats.
Trick or Treat – Use an upcycled or reusable container to collect your Halloween sweets. Containers from around the home could be pillowcases, tote bags (used) and reusable shopping bags.

Enjoy the night and remember Halloween doesn’t have to break the bank or the environment 👻

[i] https://apps.carboncloud.com/climatehub/product-reports/id/53494839181 Carbon Cloud, Water Squash (Pumpkin), open field.

[ii] https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-have-plastic-free-halloween

[iii] https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/reducing-waste-and-harvesting-energy-halloween, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/halloween-pumpkins-food-waste-energy/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20US%20Department%20of%20Energy,%20pumpkins%20that%20end

[iv] https://www.crediblygreen.com/2023/10/23/dark-side-of-halloween-reducing-waste-and-the-carbon-impact/