{"id":17786,"date":"2013-10-23T18:31:18","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=308913"},"modified":"2013-10-23T18:31:18","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:31:18","slug":"5-ways-to-make-your-halloween-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/5-ways-to-make-your-halloween-green\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Make Your Halloween Green"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Chop<\/p>\n

Halloween tops the list of holidays where lots of money is spent. The U.S. alone spends a mind-boggling $7 billion on candy, costumes and decorations. Much of these Halloween accoutrements are made overseas, shipped here and disposed of shortly after. Unfortunately, this makes for unnecessary waste and carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

Want to have a great Halloween but hate the impact all the costumes and decorating have on your health and the environment? Check out our five tips below to green your Halloween.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_308970\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"500\"]\"Chop<\/a> Chop up your pumpkin before adding it to your compost pile. Photo courtesy Shutterstock[\/caption]\n

1. Save your child’s costume to swap<\/strong> with another family next year, rather than throwing it in the trash. It’s too late for this year’s first-ever Halloween Costume Swap Day, sponsored by Green Halloween<\/a>, KIWI<\/em> magazine<\/a>, and Swap.com<\/a>. If just half the 25 million children who celebrate Halloween in the U.S. exchanged costumes, they’d reduce landfill waste by 6,250 tons.<\/p>\n

2. Make your own Halloween makeup.<\/strong> Don’t buy conventional face paints marketed for Halloween dress-up. The Ecology Center<\/a>, a Michigan-based nonprofit environmental organization, found<\/a> one or more toxic heavy metals in 100 percent of the Halloween cosmetics they tested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics<\/a> has a few easy non-toxic recipes<\/a> for non-toxic face paint.<\/p>\n

3. Give out candy that doesn’t harm the environment.<\/strong> Avoid candy that uses palm oil<\/a>. Look for organic, all-natural, dye-free ingredients that are ethically sourced and packaged with the Earth in mind—for example, candy in compostable packaging or sold in bulk). Green Halloween has ideas for alternative Halloween treats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Make low-impact, recyclable Halloween decorations.<\/strong> Rather than raiding the dollar bin at the discount store, cut gravestones from cardboard or create spider webs from yarn or string. Decorate<\/a> with bare branches, dry leaves, pumpkins, and gourds.<\/p>\n

5. Eat or compost your pumpkin.<\/strong> Americans buy more than 1 billion pounds<\/a> of pumpkins at Halloween, and the vast majority of those end up in the trash. If you don’t want to eat the pulpy inside<\/a> of your pumpkin, at least roast the seeds. Then put the pumpkin in your compost bin. Smash the shell before composting.Or just bury it in your garden<\/a>—the pumpkin will decompose quickly and add nutrients to your soil.<\/p>\n

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