Sustainable Halloween Decor: Go Green This Halloween
Orange and black are great, but have you ever tried going green for halloween? Frankenstein’s monster was definitely onto something.
Now that the opening joke (if you can call it that) is out of the way, that frees me to talk about the real topic of this week’s blog: how to have an eco-friendly halloween. You can tell this blog wasn’t written by AI because this intro paragraph is atrocious. So please keep reading to support human-generated content. :)
Halloween is my favorite holiday, but it really has become a consumeristic, wasteful machine. The good news is that we can combat that with a little bit of intention and a tiny bit of extra planning. The best way to stay low-waste is to have a plan for your fun activities. Because living sustainably DOESN’T mean you should miss out on your favorite activities, but it DOES mean you can and should plan to put in a bit more effort to make sure you’re doing your part. Mother nature is worth it.
From sustainable costume ideas, to low waste decor and DIYs, I’ve got you covered like a mummy in bamboo TP.
Eco-Friendly Halloween Costume Ideas
1. Shop Your Closet
The best place to look for a Halloween costume? Forget about Spirit Halloween. (I do still go there to look around at the spectacle that is this once-a-year oddity, don’t get me wrong.) The best place to shop for your Halloween costume is your own closet! Have a pair of green cargo pants and a black crop top? BOOM you’re Kim Possible. Call me, beep me, baby.
Okay that was an easy-mode example, but if you need inspiration, invite a friend over (or FaceTime!) and go through your wardrobe together! Sometimes getting an outside perspective on clothes you wear every day can help you think of new combinations so you don’t have to go out and buy a cheap costume-in-a-bag to be Sabrina Carpenter for one night.
Image Credit: Rolling Stone Magazine, 2024.
2. Thrift Your Costume
Once you’ve gathered some pieces you can build your costume on from your existing wardrobe, I like to head to the thrift to find the extra accessories I might be missing. (For us Escondidans, this usually means Valley Thrift on Valley Parkway or Goodwill on Washington.) This is a whole lot cheaper than buying them new, AND they’re usually higher quality than the cheap plastic replica accessories you’ll find at Spirit or other big box stores like Target. Trust me, you’ll look way cooler and feel way better in a costume that no one else has. Sure, there may be a bunch of people dressed like Anna from Freakier Friday, but your authentic studded Y2K belt and emo band tee mixed with the thrifted Guitar Hero controller are 100% unique.
Image Credit: Pinterest, via Pinterest user, Erica Alexis.
3. DIY What You Can’t Find
Let’s say you really want to be Wirt from Over the Garden Wall and you’ve repurposed a button down and a pair of trousers from your closet, and thrifted a pair of suspenders and a blue wool cape, but you just can’t find that essential vermillion conical hat. That is one piece I’d recommend DIYing! Grab a piece of red posterboard from the craft store twist it into a cone, tape it in place (bonus points for paper washi tape instead of plastic scotch tape) and you’re done.
Okay, okay, I know that was another easy mode suggestion, but DIY Halloween costumes really can be that simple if you want. I’d be just as likely to papier-mâché a pumpkin head last minute and be a townsfolk from Pottsfield. In fact… I don’t have a Halloween costume planned for this year yet, so stay tuned to see if I do that! But the point is, where there’s a will, there’s a way and using your creativity and resourcefulness to create a costume is wayyyy more punk than just throwing money at a corporation to take home a cookie cutter costume-in-a-bag. But hey, that’s just me…
Image credit: Ebay, Over the Garden Wall Cosplay Wirt Mantle Cape Costume
Eco-Friendly Halloween Decor
If you’re not big on dressing up, but still want to dress your house up for Halloween, you can definitely do it with the environment in mind!
For the sake of all things holy, sacred, and good in this world, please – I BEG you – PLEASe do not use artificial spiderwebs. You know the ones I mean. The ones that look like cotton candy while in the bag and stretch to a million times their original size when you pull them apart and inevitable get gunked up with dirt and twigs rendering them almost impossible to reuse? Yeah, those ones.
I know, I know, I grew up with them too. They’re nostalgic and aesthetic as f@%k. But they’re actually TERRIBLE for the environment. They’re literally made of microplastics and are not biodegradable. They can also lead to wildlife entanglement as birds, bees, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators can get caught in the clingy fibers. It’s reportedly strong enough to snare an owl. Hello??? That’s awful! Not to mention, birds can mistake these plastic webs for natural materials, attempt to use them in their nest making and it can get caught on their widdol beaks, they could ingest it, among a whole list of other horrible reasons not to use this insidious crap.
If you really like the look of spiderwebs for Halloween, might I suggest making your own out of yarn? I bet you have a ball of white yarn laying around from a long abandoned craft somewhere. (I’m guilty of this for sure.) And if not, a quick trip to Michael’s will remedy this. Next, you can use push pins and create a spiderweb on a wall or tie the web together with knots, or even crochet a giant web to put on the exterior of your house? Idk! The world is your oyster! But only if you don’t use those awful plastic webs.
Michael’s also carries a giant spider web, made from netting that is way safer than the pull apart spider webs from the dollar store or spirit halloween. Plus, something sturdy like this will last for years, giving you more bang for your buck!
You can also upcycle a trash bag into a spider web! You can check out the full tutorial here, but it’s kind of like cutting a paper snowflake, but bigger. Again, you get bonus points if your trash bags are compostable or made of recycled materials… Just saying!
Image credit: HGTV, trash bag spiderwebs.
So What Is the Most Sustainable Halloween Decor?
The bottom line is this: The most sustainable Halloween decor or costume is the one you already own. There is absolutely nothing wrong with reusing a costume. Repurposing and repairing the same decor year after year is cool. Maybe you’ll even become known on your block for your signature pieces!
I feel like as a society, we are addicted to novelty, newness, and iteration sometimes to our detriment. That’s not to say I’m not for innovation – I am! We wouldn’t have green energy without it! All I am asking is that you take a look at the motivation behind your impulse purchases this season. Do you REALLY need another plastic Halloween candy bowl just because it’s on sale and features the new pastel Halloween trend? Or can you maybe do with the same color scheme you made do with last year?
We are all so nostalgic for past holiday seasons and when I think back to my favorite memories from Halloween as a kid, they were getting THE SAME old jack-o-lantern placemats out. Getting THE SAME costume trunk down from the rafters. Playing with THE SAME old musty wigs that my parents bought for costumes they wore to parties 10+ years prior. Today I still hang THE SAME glow in the dark skeleton on my front door that I've had since childhood. I'm pretty sure that thing is older than me and I cherish it! Yes, it's super weird looking and has red rhinestones for eyes and a rubber rat sticking out of its rib cage. But that all also means it's unique.
Maybe we are nostalgic for the past because our souls ache from the imposed rush, churn, and consumerism of the present. Maybe? What are your thoughts? Let me know! Seriously, I’m curious. Also, are you dressing up this year?