The most wonderful time of the year is almost here! The leaves have begun to change, and Halloween is creeping up quickly. While the spooky season is supposed to be a time of mischief and amusement, it has also become a holiday overflowing with plastic.
Halloween began as a Celtic festival called Samhain. It traveled from Europe and spread across the United States. The pagan festival was initially created as a time for people to communicate with the dead but has become something else entirely. Often, costumes and decorations wind up in the trash or landfill after the holiday ends. The amount of plastic Halloween waste is estimated at around 2,000 tons each year. That figure does not even include the non-plastic waste that is created. Many fabrics that are used to create these costumes are made in factories and do not naturally degrade, adding to the already overflowing landfills.
Luckily for us, there are plenty of ways to try and be more sustainable this upcoming holiday. Creating your costumes, using candy with paper packaging, and properly disposing of pumpkins is just the start. Help your community by limiting your plastic consumption this holiday, and create a tradition of sustainability for many years to come.