PLASTIC-FREE HALLOWEEN

Okay, you've just gotten into the swing of living a low-waste lifestyle. Then October rolls around... 

What about Halloween?

Long gone are the days that we are able to handout unpackaged candy, so what is the green alternative? 'Cause let's face it... nobody wants to be the neighbour on the street handing out pencils. We recommend handing out treats in a compostable or recyclable package. 

ie. Boxes of organic raisins, Fruit (like mandarins), Dots, Milk Duds, or Nerds! 

Some people also opt for handing out "treasures" instead of "treats". These can be things like bracelets made with a natural fiber or yarn, lavender sachets, or even printed items such as jokes, word games, word search or cross word puzzles. I also love the idea of handing out seed packets (pollinators to plant in spring, or perhaps gourds to plant next fall), or natural unpackaged soap. 

 

Why should we switch
from wrapped candy?

Thanks to the (mostly) urban myth of people poisoning Halloween candy, it’s now a given that we need to pass out the corporate-sanctioned, factory-sealed sweets. While that might mean more parents at ease, it also means big waste. Halloween itself is a massive industry. This infograph gives a look at just how massive. To summarize, 158 million Americans participate in Halloween, and 95 percent of them buy candy. The amount spent on candy for Halloween alone totals more than $2 billion annually. That’s 600 million pounds of candy, the weight equal to six Titanic ships. That’s a lot of candy, and a lot of wrappers. Wrappers that aren’t approved for tossing in the recycling bin. Yet that doesn’t mean Halloween candy wrappers need to end up in landfills.

The Pale Blue Dot will be collecting halloween candy wrappers for recycling through TerraCycle starting late October.  We are currently raising funds to purchase the TerraCycle candy wrapper recycling box. If you would like to contribute a few dollars head to our GoFundMe page.