Halloween is a time when kids get creative to design fun costumes, try on an alter ego or career aspiration or their favorite movie or series character. Adults make a statement with their costumes too. I have fond memories of dressing up as a bumble bee when I was a kid volunteering with Children’s Village in New York.
The creative spirit is glorious. But by and large the costumes most people wear and have their kids wear are an ecological nightmare. Halloween is also expensive at a time when families are struggling to put food on the table and pay rent due to the convergence of tariffs and inflation, high housing costs and the government shutdown that cut off wages for millions of federal workers and stopped funding the food assistance SNAP program that serves tens of millions of Americans, including millions of kids.
The National Retail Federation estimates total spending on costumes at $4.3 billion, on decorations at $4.2 billion, and on candy at $3.9 billion (and $700 million on pet costumes).
It’s an expense that’s short-lived too. Four out of 10 costumes are only worn once, according to a study from Treehouse Kids. That means costumes are inherently “fast fashion,” not worn much before they are tossed in the trash. Lexy Silverstein – who calls herself a sustainable fashion advocate and is partnering with Heal the Bay and Clinical Associates on a campaign to reduce the likelihood that Halloween costumes end up in landfill – shared frightening statistics.
Halloween generates tons of waste in landfills
Silverstein’s team wrote me that, “Each year, Americans discard 35 million costumes, creating more than 5 million kilograms of textile waste. This is equivalent to the weight of 83 million plastic bottles — a staggering environmental impact.” (I was not able to independently verify the source of these data points by the time of publication.)
Waste360.com reported that 2,079 tons of Halloween costume waste was sent to landfills in 2022. The Times in the UK reports that Halloween creates more plastic waste than any other holiday.
As you see costumes tonight and go trick-or-treating yourself, notice all the tons of plastic, in costumes, masks, candy wrappers, the pumpkin baskets that kids often collect their “treats” in, hats, signs, and props.
Even bottlers who make and use plastic bottles are reducing their footprint in large numbers, as Ana Canela, head of Niagara Cares, the philanthropic arm of Niagara Water explained in an exclusive interview recently.
There are pop stores that are only open for a few months each year only to sell elaborate costumes. Imagine the waste from those.
Costumes, decorations made from polyester, a petroleum-based product
Most costumes are also made from polyester, which is a petroleum-based product, and other similar synthetics, which take, as Silverstein’s team claims, “can take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to decompose” in a landfill.
Ecostyles in Australia also reports that most pre-made, store-bought costumes have toxic chemicals in them including PFAS, phthalates, BPA, lead and cadmium, which is very scary.
LanzaTech is developing fiber from captured Co2 that mimics polyester, and their Chief Science Officer Zara Summers brought a t-shirt and a pair of leggings made from it to my Earth Day Women’s Summit in April. Until that and other ecologically sound products are widely available though, we’ll need to get more creative to express our Halloween spirits.
Sustainable Halloween Ideas
Here are a few last minute ideas to reduce your carbon impact while being creative:
- Use your creativity to raid your closet and your kids’ closet to put together an original costume that uses existing stuff.
- Use recycled materials to make costumes, decorations and props.
- Use paper more than plastic to make props, masks and decorations.
- Give out candy in paper wrappers rather than plastic.
- Give out organic candy and other “treats”.
- Collect “treats” in canvas shopping bags with Halloween decorations.
- Donate your or your kid’s costume to a charity to help other kids and families have a fun Halloween next year, instead of just tossing it away.
At the very least, you can recycle all those plastic containers you collect and use this Halloween.