Most holidays are full of plastic waste. Whether it is plastic red, white, and blue bunting for 4th of July, plastic horns and hats for New Years or all those candy wrappers on Halloween, plastic is everywhere as we try to celebrate. This is particularly frustrating when the plastic is just completely unnecessary. Here are just a couple of examples of needless plastic waste:
- Plastic Pumpkin Fangs (pictured above)–Back in the day (last year) we would all cut out craggy teeth on our pumpkin faces. Does it take a little effort? Yes. Does it always come out the way you wanted? No–that knife almost always cut out one of the teeth I had designed. But did our pumpkins always look good and spooky once it was dark out and we put a candle inside? Absolutely! Why buy plastic teeth that will inevitably end up in a landfill on Nov. 2?!
- Pumpkin Plastic Bag for your leaves–Leaves do not need to be collected in plastic bags. This might be larger than a real pumpkin, but a couple of real pumpkins can be just as decorative as one orange plastic bag with a pumpkin face on it. If your town requires you to collect leaves in bags, use paper bags available at Lowe’s and Home Depot.
- Plastic decorations (pumpkins, skeletons, witches, etc…) to hang on your doors, windows or put in your yard. These may be used more than one year, but will still end up in a landfill at the end of their life. How about using window markers, making decorations from construction paper or buying cardboard decorations that can be recycled?
- Big blow-up outdoor decorations. That fabric undouibtedly contains plastic. Just skip these.
Halloween is a fun and exciting time for kids. To keep it fun and prevent plastic-waste, just pick natural or recyclable decorations. Another great idea is a halloween costume swap. Most costumes get worn just one day before being thrown out. Organize a costume swap where you collect costumes from past halloweens and then organize a costume “shop” in early October. Think of all the nylon, polyester and plastic that can be reused and saved from the landfill.
Happy Halloween!
Great post