Happy Green Halloween

By:  Stephanie Benney

Candy corn, caramel apples, popcorn balls and fun-size chocolate bars bring to mind one of America’s favorite holidays – HALLOWEEN!  Coming up with the ideal costume for trick-or-treating and Halloween parties is often times a process started in the summer months.  Decorating or transforming our homes into the “Bates Motel” or the “House On Haunted Hill”  is a spooktacular way to get the whole family or group of girlfriends involved.

Halloween has become a $6+ billion a year holiday, which breaks down to roughly $67.00 per person.  While carving the perfect jack-o-lantern and finding the perfect vampire makeup is paramount, there are some tips to follow for greening your Halloween.

Our friends at treehugger.com have compiled a list of 8 great ways to have a Green Halloween:

Skip the plastic costumes

Watch out for the soft vinyl–similar to shower curtain material–in many mass-produced costumes: that’s likely polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which releases dangerous chemicals. Not exactly something you want covering your face (or your child’s)–plus, it can’t be recycled.

Get creative at home
So what to do instead? With a little planning and creativity, even the least handy DIYers can put together a costume with items they have at home–try stringing old ping pong balls for Wilma Flintstone’s classic necklace, or bending old wire hangers into butterfly wings. Scour your closets (and your friends’, and neighbors’, and local thrift stores) for flashback fashions you can pair up, trim down, sew together, or dye (naturally, of course).

Face facts
You just won’t look like Marilyn Monroe without red lipstick, or turn into a zombie prom queen without plenty of eyeshadow. But do choose organic, natural makeup for your transformation, and avoid the mercury, pthalates, parabens, and fragrances that come standard in most big-name brands. You can make your own, find an organic retailer, or special-order vegan makeup for exactly the right shade.

Bar classic candies
Half the fun of Halloween is the sugar high, no matter how old you are. But by stocking your bowl with organic, natural treats instead, you can escape many of the chemicals and preservatives that are even scarier than your neighbor’s Frankenstein mask. Look for brands that donate part of their profits to environmental causes; Fair Trade-sourced chocolates; or sweets made with pure cane sugar, fruit juice, and natural colors.              

Choose a kid-friendly carryall
When it comes to hauling all those treasures home, reusable canvas bags get the win over plastic or paper for safety and environmental reasons. Buy your own blank bags and let the little ones decorate them with non-toxic paint–they’re sure to be an annual highlight–or browse craft stores and online retailers for seasonal offerings that sport witches, ghosts, and goblins galore. Then keep your kids visible to passing cars with battery-free flashlights.

Set the mood
The soft flickering of traditional candles gives Halloween its spooky feel–and what’s a jack-o-lantern without one? However, the paraffin in wax candles releases toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene through smoke and soot. Clean up your home and keep your lungs healthy with organic soy candles, which last longer and come from renewable soy bean crops. And as for that jack-o-lantern, buy him from a local farm (and don’t let his seeds go to waste; toast them).

Keep it simple
The rest of your decorations–plastic spiders, dangling skeletons, spooky scarecrows–should be one-time purchases that you use every year, just like the rest of your holiday decor. When possible, look for reclaimed material; if you’re buying things you know you can’t keep, like streamers or paper plates, be sure to look for brands that are both recycled and recyclable.

Eat–and decorate–locally
If spiders and skeletons aren’t your thing, you can draw inspiration from the harvest bounty; think pumpkins, gourds, straw bales, and corn husks (all from your local farms, of course). Serve up snacks and nibbles made from other farm-fresh, seasonal produce, like squash soup, carrot cake, and apple cider.

Fall festivals and Halloween are a great opportunity to restore a sense of community.  Why not do it up green?  The staff at BizChicks wishes everyone a safe and Happy Green Halloween!

Stephanie Benney is a “Sustainable Visionary” and also the new Pittsburgh Representative for Fuzed Marketing, where she helps companies increase their brand presence. stephaniebenney@yahoo.com