10 Spooky Facts About Halloween Waste And 5 Ways To Reduce It

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays around the western world. It’s a night of glorious costumes, gorge-worthy candy, and spooky decorations. But have you wondered where all the candy wrappers, costumes, and decorations go, the next morning?

Some people repurpose and reuse their costumes and decorations, but many don’t.

According to statistics, most of this holiday waste, dominated by single-use plastics, ends up in landfills, worsening an already raging crisis: climate change. Just recently, in Pakistan, a developing country, climate change-linked deadly floods cost the country $40B in losses. Nearly 2,000 people, including children, lost their lives, and over 2.1 million people lost their homes.

Pakistan’s contribution to global climate change issue: less than 1%.

While climate change is a multi-layered problem, holiday waste is becoming a significant portion of it.

As Halloween continues to gain more popularity among the masses, and as an increasing number of people start celebrating it, there seems to be no end in sight to relieve the planet of all this holiday waste.

Here are 10 facts to give you an idea of how serious this problem has become.

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Halloween Costumes

1. 83% of Halloween costumes use non-recyclable plastic, equivalent to around 2000 tons of plastic waste.
2. 63% of Halloween costumes can take up to 20-200 years to decompose.
3. 35 million Halloween costumes are thrown away in the U.S each year.
4. Each year, the US produces approximately 5.4kgs of textile waste from Halloween costumes.

Pumpkin Carving

5. About 1B pounds of pumpkins are sent to landfills each year.
6. 40% of consumers buy pumpkins to carve for Halloween but 60% of them just throw it away afterwards.
7. 18,000 tons of pumpkins end up in landfills, which is approximately 360 million portions of pumpkin pie.
8. When decomposed, pumpkins produce methane gas, which is 20X more harmful to earth than CO2.

Trick or Treat

9. Halloween candy contributes to the plastic packaging waste, up to 30%.
10. Americans spend around $2.36B on plastic decorations each year that end up in landfills.

5 Tips To Reduce The Waste

While we do have a serious problem at our hands, we also have ways to spend the holidays with a more sustainable and eco-friendly conscience.

Here are 5 easy ways you can make your Halloween less scary for the planet.

1. Reuse Costumes

Repurpose and recycle your Halloween costume. Don’t just throw it away.

2. Eco Friendly Packaging

Use biodegradable or reusable packaging for candies on Halloween.

3. Consume Pumpkin

Eat your pumpkin. Make recipes to use it. Compost it. Or feed it to the animals.

4. Save Decorations

Donate or recycle Halloween decorations. Don’t put them in the waste-bins.

5. Smart Utensils

Ditch disposable utensils. Use glass plates or aluminum foils and pans.