The List: 6 Treats and Tricks For Reducing Halloween Waste
TerraCycle Include USA
Candy wrappers, disposable décor, cheap wrappers, oh my! Here are some new tips for cutting down on Halloween trash.
A couple of years ago, my daughters were nonplussed to discover that one of our neighbors dropped an ear of popping corn in their trick or treat baskets. But I wasn’t: This particular neighbor’s front porch is the pickup spot for a CSA and she’s a big supporter of local river cleanup efforts. Given that I was finding little scraps of candy wrappers around my house for days, it was refreshing to be able to pop the cob right in the microwave and throw the spent cob in my compost pail.
That little cob of corn has stuck in my mind in recent Halloweens as I watch the candy wrappers go in the trash (most aren’t recyclable), along with the cheap, flimsy decorations that my kids seem to convince me to buy, and the costumes they’ll outgrow by next year (what kid wants to be the same thing two years in a row?).
Can Halloween be enjoyed without ending up with a landfill-bound bag of trash the next day? I think so — here’s how!
3.Be green with your own candy wrappers. There’s no escaping the candy that’ll be just about everywhere in the days before and after Halloween (even if you don’t have kids, chances are your workplace will be full of it!). The Internet is full of fun projects you can do with candy wrappers. Plain foil wrappers or clear plastic can be recycled with the rest of your foil and plastic film. TerraCycle offers a collection box for wrappers — why not see if your local school or library will serve as a collection point?