Green Halloween: Start thinking about eco-friendly alternatives to scary Halloween waste

Halloween can be downright scary — particularly when you stop to consider the amount of waste that gets generated for the sake of a couple of hours of fun.

I'm not talking about all those unfortunate pumpkins who sacrifice their lives so that little kids can see vegetables turned into something cool that glows in the dark.

Pumpkins can be tossed in the compost bin, after all.

I'm talking about the really scary parts of Halloween: all those ready-to-wear Halloween costumes (complete with bizarre and garish plastic accessories) and those tackier-than-pink-flamingo lawn ornaments that are only tasteful one night of the year (if that).

And then there's the Halloween candy itself. It's a testament to the miracles of modern packaging science that they can get so little product into so much packaging (the classic case being those miniature bags of potato chips that are so full of air that they seem destined to become airborne at any moment).

It just doesn't seem right to hit the stores with reckless abandon, loading up on all kinds of Halloween "bling." So what's an environmentally conscious mom or dad to do, given that the kids still want to have their fun — and only the dentist down the street can get away with handing out toothbrushes and dental floss?

Here's what I hope will be the start of a Halloween mom-i-festo — a refusal to inflict any more useless and tacky trash on the landfills of the nation. Care to add your two cents or more?

Halloween costumes

Buy, borrow, or swap. Hit the thrift stores. Check out the classified ads. Or better yet, organize a Halloween costume swap with a group of friends. (Everyone brings costumes that are no longer being worn by their kids and, with any luck, everyone goes home with a "new" costume to wear this year.)

Design your own costume. Now before you start thinking you have to be a domestic diva to pull this off, relax. Designing a costume can be as simple as retro-fitting a pair of pajamas (adding a "tail" made out of a pair of pantyhose, for example) and adding "mouse ears" to a winter hat. 

Plan C. If you absolutely have to buy something new and off the rack, look for a package-less costume and look for something that can be worn year-round as "dress-up clothes" and then passed on to friends, neighbours and relatives. In other words, buy something that will stand up to plenty of kid wear and tear.

Halloween treats

• You'll have to do a bit more detective work to find Halloween treats that meet the key criteria: nut-free (due to the risk of allergies) and light on packaging (but ideally wrapped in some sort of commercial packaging so that parents won't be worried that the treats may have been tampered with).
• If you decide to hand out something other than food (for example, pencils or child-safe craft supplies), make sure that any item you hand out to children under the age of three won't pose any sort of choking hazard.

Halloween party

If trick-or-treating starts to become too complicated, you can always throw a Halloween party instead. To avoid the traditional party loot bag, send the party guests home with a giant Halloween cookie (decorated at the party) and a Halloween craft project that you've worked on together.

Tip: Looking for other ways to reduce the amount of packaging in your life? In recent weeks, the members of BlogHers Act Canada have been challenging themselves to reduce the amount of packaging in their lives as they've been getting back into the fall groove.