The Halloween waste economy; creating a more circular and sustainable Halloween

Image credit: Nikola Johnny Mirkovic

Halloween is gradually becoming synonymous with waste with its rituals of single-use costumes, party kits and other paraphernalia. Overconsumption and excessive waste levels can be high at any given time of the year; however, holidays like Halloween spike the charts of environmental degradation. Australia, the US, and the UK are big-time celebrating Halloween with the usual accoutrements of costumes, food, decorations, and candy/sweets.

In a Halloween waste article last year, we wrote more in depth about the economic and environmental categories of the holiday celebrations. Here's an update on Halloween spending in these countries for 2024:

Australia is set to spend A$450 million (approximately USD 296 million or £228 million). 21% of Australians are celebrating Halloween, and each celebrant will spend an average of A$93 ($61 USD or £47), according to the Australian Retail Association and Roy Morgan.

The US is set to spend USD 11.6 billion (approximately A$17.6 billion or £8.9 billion). 72% of Americans are celebrating with an average $104 USD spent per person (A$158 or £80), based on data from the National Retail Federation.

The UK is set to spend £776 million (approximately A$1.5 billion or $1 billion USD). 58% of Brits are celebrating to an average of £25 per person (A$50 or $39 USD) according to Finder.

Australia

The Halloween categories Australians will have spent on this year, according to Roy Morgan and the Australian Retail Association, include:

•         Trick or treating - 45%

•         Treats for trick-or-treaters – 38%

•         Halloween costumes – 37%

•         Home decorations - 32%

•         Attending or hosting – 18%

The USA

The 2024 Halloween spending in the US from the National Retail Federation are:

• Costumes - $3.8B (USD)

• Decorations - $3.8B

• Candy - $3.5B

• Greeting cards - $0.5B.

The UK

The UK's 2024 Halloween spending according to Mirror UK:

•         Plastic-wrapped sweets – 85%

•         Decorations – 74%

•         Costumes – 70%.

Halloween’s toll on the environment

While these figures may be gold for some aspects of the economy on the surface and also the retail sector, they are a tragedy for the environment. These high surges in holiday product sales result in enormous plastic, paper, food and other material waste. For instance, 46 million products, such as decorations and costumes, are thrown out each year in the UK. But there is hope. By choosing sustainable alternatives, we can significantly reduce this waste.

Costumes and physical health

83% of Halloween costumes are made with non-recyclable, oil-based plastics, so they will likely end up in landfill. They are often made with the cheapest and poor-quality polyester, nylon and acrylic materials. They are designed through a planned obsolescence strategy with a single-use intention. These store-bought costumes usually release microplastics into the air and shed microplastics if washed. Another disconcerting fact is that more than 63% of plastic Halloween costumes can take hundreds of years to decompose. And only 1% of these costumes and the materials they comprise are recycled. With the US spending $3.8 billion USD on costumes and 37% of Australia's Halloween spending going to costumes, plus 70% of the UK's Halloween purchasing also going to costumes, the costume waste from these countries alone will be outrageous.

According to a 2024 textiles waste report by The Australia Institute, Australia is the biggest consumer of clothing in the world per capita. Australia also happens to be one of the world's biggest consumers of single-use plastics per capita, according to a plastic waste makers index by the Minderoo Foundation. However, these statistics also present an opportunity for change. By rethinking our approach to Halloween, we can significantly impact Australia's environmental footprint.

Toxic chemicals from the materials used in Halloween costumes are a terrifying fact about the holiday.  Harmful chemicals such as PFAS, phthalates, BPA, lead and cadmium are found on products made by many costume and fast fashion suppliers. The accumulation of these chemicals in the body can lead to heart, liver and kidney problems, infertility, congenital disabilities, migraines, skin irritations, endocrine disruption and other ailments. Scientists found twenty times the amount of lead that's considered safe in a toddler jacket made by the ultra-fast fashion brand Shein. Lead is known to affect the brain and nervous system as well as create intellectual inabilities, behavioural disorders and other developmental problems in children. Children's clothing with Disney characters had to be recalled 2022 by a company called the Bentex Group for containing high amounts of lead.

Food

According to Hubbub, in 2023, 15.8 million pumpkins were set to go to waste during Halloween in the UK, which is the equivalent of 95 million meals ending up in the bin.  

In Australia, 7.6 million tonnes of food are wasted in a year. Holiday rituals are typically highly wasteful, and Halloween waste could potentially contribute to food waste as an increasing number of Australians are celebrating the holiday (currently, 21%).

It’s been reported that almost 2 billion pounds of pumpkins are produced in the US each year, with more than 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins thrown away based on information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The US will also spend USD $3.5 billion on candy and sweets this year. Some of it might go to waste but it will lead to increased plastics pollution because many candy wrappers are made of plastic.

Plastic

In addition to costumes, tremendous plastic waste accompanies Halloween celebrations, such as popular trick-or-treat buckets with the jack-o-lantern image used by many children and the barrage of ‘landfill fillers’ single-use, disposable party cutlery, plates, and cups.

Creating a more circular and sustainable Halloween

However, there are ways to enjoy the holiday without polluting the planet or making it another annual waste disaster.

1. Adopt a circularity mindset

First and foremost, with all holiday celebrations, adopt a mindset that EVERYTHING you purchase or use for holiday celebrations must be something you can and will use again. And at worst, be recyclable.

2. Halloween costume swap

Instead of buying brand new costumes yearly, people can host costume clothes swaps in their schools, homes, neighbourhoods and social groups. This reduces the flow of costumes to landfill and high levels of toxic chemicals from brand-new costumes. Swapping can also include costumes from activities such as book week.

3. Decorate a reusable bag or create a reusable Halloween bag

The world uses around 5 trillion plastic bags a year. Australia alone uses 6.9 billion plastic bags a year, of which 3.6 billion are plastic shopping bags, while Americans use an average of 365 plastic bags per person per year.

Halloween is an opportunity to get into the habit of reusable bags by painting a reusable bag in your favourite holiday look and colours. Alternatively, you can repurpose a pillowcase or tie together an old t-shirt.

4. DIY Costumes

Search online for easy, fun Halloween costumes you can make with friends, alone or with children. Costume-making can be an exciting social activity that people enjoy. Use platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook for ideas and inspiration. There can be a level of pride and confidence in children making their own costumes.

5. Shop secondhand

Diverting reusable stuff from landfill is a purposeful act. Before you hit the conventional online and in-person retail spots for holiday stuff, check out the secondhand stores first. You might even have local online neighbourhood groups such as Buy, Sell, and Swap groups on Facebook or other preloved platforms such as Craigslist, Gumtree, Marketplace, etc.

6. Compost, preserve or store food

Whether it’s leftover party food, candy, sweets or pumpkin flesh from your carved jack-o-lantern, you can freeze, refrigerate, compost, or even donate leftover food to charity to prevent it from becoming waste.

7. Hire, borrow or rent disposable party gear and utensils

Search for party kit hire places in your local area or online to prevent buying new, disposable stuff. Considering the items will only be used for a single holiday celebration, it’s possibly not worth buying brand new.  

Article by Nina Gbor

Earth Day; the threat of plastics on human & environmental health

Image credit: Nick Fewings via Unsplash

Everyday should be Earth Day as she consistently blesses us with an abundant supply of everything we need to survive, thrive, have good health & wellbeing. However, it’s sufficient to say we continue to wreck many elements of this beautiful planet. What we often fail to realise is that as we destroy the planet, we’re destroying ourselves - our health in particular.

The amount of plastic waste produced globally is expected to nearly triple by 2060, with around half ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled, according to a 2022 OECD report. It projects that global plastics consumption will rise from 460 million tonnes in 2019 to 1,231 million tonnes in 2060 at the current rate of plastics production and use. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. 

In Australia, 3.4 million tonnes of plastic is consumed each year which is equivalent to 72 Sydney Harbour Bridges. By 2049-50, this is expected to rise to 9.7 million tonnes. By 2050, the amount of plastic consumed in Australia will more than double. Only 14% of plastic waste is kept out of landfill.

Microplastics are ubiquitous - in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Scientific studies estimate that humans ingest between 0.1 grams to 5 grams – which is equivalent to an entire credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. The microplastics are a vessel where these toxic chemicals enter our system and get into our bloodstream, tissues and digestive system. Microplastics are being found in the placenta of newborn babies. Plastics are associated with diseases such as birth defects, cancer, endocrine toxicity and lung cancer.

Majority of people in Australia and the rest of the world are unaware or it’s very much out of sight, out of mind for them and they just don’t care about the plastics waste and pollution crisis. For some, they are just trying to imminently survive economic and other life crises, therefore, the earth’s wellbeing is naturally less of a priority. For people with the bandwidth to take action, knowledge of health issues associated with microplastics can be a much stronger motivator towards action and advocacy than just pollution alone.

Health risks can affect everyone and therefore is a more relevant conversation to almost every individual. This is why circularity and environmental movements will likely have even more effective results in the plastics pollution discourse if the health aspect of it is the leading topic of educational and awareness campaigns and conversations. Of course this is not to be used as a scare tactic, so it it’s critical to verify any statistics and data used in these endeavours.

These are some statistics and information on plastics and human health from a workshop I attended by Minderoo Films / Minderoo Foundation:

• There are over 16,000 chemicals used in plastics. 4,200 chemicals are considered to be highly hazardous to human health, with 11,000 chemicals not yet assessed

• Due to the huge volume of plastics in everyday life, the impacts of these chemicals are almost unavoidable

• There is evidence that plastics may cause obesity, lower IQ and hypertension.

• Data shows a drop in male sperm count of 1% per year for 5 decades, future generations will likely experience infertility

• Significant increase in heart disease and stroke in people who have higher levels of micro and nano plastics

• If we stopped using these chemicals, we would see a rapid change in exposure (the chemicals are short lived in the body).

 I recommend learning more about the impact of plastics on health if you can. Minderoo has some great resources, and you can read up on from here.

The Australia Institute Plastic Waste in Australia report (page 4) from January 2024 covers some health risks.

As we celebrate the earth, we can remind ourselves that our bodies came from and will eventually return to the earth. It’s part of us and we are part of it. As we take care of the earth, it takes care of us.