Go green this Halloween: How to decorate with sustainability in mind
Halloween season is upon us, and between decorations, costumes and candy, stores are stocked with goods to help celebrate the holiday.
Before turning to the shelves, however, shoppers can consider a variety of ways to be more green this Halloween — including recycling costumes, composting pumpkins and choosing decorations more carefully — sustainability experts say.
Wildlife concerns
Fake spider webs are a particular area of concern for wildlife rehabilitators. Birds, insects and other animals can easily become entangled in the stringy webbing, said Stephanie Touzalin, education specialist with the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn.
The center has seen a number of animals come in after getting caught in the decorative webs, in addition to patients that were trapped in similar hazards like Christmas lights, soccer nets and landscaping netting.
“It's not like you can completely reduce some of those items, but you can think about it and be aware, and maybe opt to not use them or to use them indoors only. If you have something nearby that might be a danger, you can check it periodically to see if any animals are potentially in trouble,” she said. “Anything unnatural put out in the natural world has potential for an animal to get in trouble.”
The webs are especially dangerous for birds in mid-October, when many species are in the peak of their fall migration, Touzalin said, adding that the Chicago region is a major migratory pathway.
Songbirds migrate at night to take advantage of the lower temperatures, and Touzalin said that, in addition to skipping the spider web decorations, homeowners can help birds by reducing outdoor lighting, which can disorient traveling wildlife.
Touzalin said fake webs also trap insects that pollinate plants and provide the foundation of the natural food chain. Worldwide, 40% of insects are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change, according to Biological Conservation.
“Pollinators are really important for our environment, and we're seeing a decrease overall,” Touzalin said. “Really trying to do anything we can not to damage pollinators, not to reduce their numbers, is a good thing.”
Reducing and reusing
Instead of buying new decorations and costumes this year, reuse and recycle them to limit the amount of waste going to the landfill, sustainability experts suggest.
Merleanne Rampale, education director at the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, said people looking for new items this year should instead consider heading to the thrift store. Or, they could set up costume or decorations swaps among neighbors.
Another key contributor to Halloween waste is pumpkins. When it's looking like time to get rid of the popular orange gourds, there are two key environmentally friendly options: composting or leaving them for the local animals.
While wildlife experts discourage regularly feeding wildlife, Touzalin said pumpkins and other gourds can be a welcome food source for squirrels and other rodents. Dried corn also is a favorite snack for many species.
If you who would like to compost your pumpkins but don't have backyard composting or compost pickup through your municipality, there are more than 50 “Pumpkin Smash” sites across the suburbs this year where you can drop them off.
The annual event, which is a partnership among dozens of municipalities and the environmental education nonprofit SCARCE, composted more than 242 tons of pumpkins in 2021, diverting greenhouse gas-emitting organic waste from our landfills.
The majority of Pumpkin Smash events will be the morning of Nov. 5. A map of locations can be found at tinyurl.com/PumpkinSmashSites.
Diverting waste
Rampale said diverting waste is one of the solid waste agency's core tasks. The Grayslake landfill, where a majority of Lake County waste goes, is projected to reach capacity in four years.
“Landfills aren't the best option for a lot of other reasons, too,” Rampale said. “Not only do we not have space left there, but we know the impacts of landfills and the greenhouse gas emissions and how they play into climate change.”
Nationally, methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills in 2020 were equal to greenhouse gas emissions from about 20.3 million passenger vehicles for one year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
There are a lot of different eco-friendly options that people can choose this Halloween season, and using even one is a step forward, Rampale said.
“Somebody could go to town and use all of these resources and ideas, or if you pick just a small handful of things that you can do, that's a great thing, too,” she said. “I really want people to have fun and see that taking a few small things multiplied by a few thousand people here in our community can really be impactful.”
Visit Rampale's extensive tip sheet at tinyurl.com/SWALCOGreenHalloween.
• Jenny Whidden is a Report For America corps member covering climate change and the environment for the Daily Herald. To help support her work, click here to make a tax-deductible donation.