Article Date:
Author:
Pervinder Paul
Boo!
With Halloween approaching fast and it being a greatly celebrated occasion all over the world, what we all seem to forget about is the wastage of materials and rubbish produced around this time of year. Food, decorations, costumes and pumpkins are usually disposed of incorrectly and in large amounts.
-Every year 18,000 tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away with the numbers rapidly increasing every year.
-£510 Million is spent of costumes/ year. 1 Million costumes were binned in 2016/ 12,000 tonnes.
Nukleen have come up with some great ideas to help minimise wastage and keep it an enjoyable celebration for you all to still enjoy.
Tips to minimise wastage and focusing on recycling are:
Decorations- Instead of buying new decorations every year, another way could be to make your own. Using recyclable materials from your home, get creative! If Halloween has ended and you don’t need your decorations anymore instead of disposing them, it might be a good idea to take them down to a charity shop. This way they will still be used, and they may benefit somebody else.
Costume- Re using old costumes could be beneficial, if not then swapping with a sibling or friend. They could be dressed up to your taste with a bit of fake blood or paint. If neither of these options work out for you, I think you’d be pleased to know that a charity shop has a wider selection that might suit you better.
Sweet/ treats- being conscious of the wrapping the sweets are wrapped in that are given to children. The plastic wrapping that the individual sweets are sold in are not usually recyclable. Try to find some that don’t need plastic wrapping, alternatively making homemade treats or card board boxed containers might be a better suited option.
Pumpkin- did you know that a pumpkin can be used as compost?? Its easy to do and would reduce the wastage of them greatly. The pulp makes for a delicious pumpkin soup or a juice/ puree. Roasting the seeds and frying thin slices of the skin can make tasty nibbles to enhance your Halloween celebrations. Pumpkins can still be recycled just don’t forget to take the candle out first.
