It's the season to be spooky, but Halloween can have a scary impact on the environment. According to CNN, a survey conducted by PriceGrabber found that 48 percent of parents plan on purchasing a brand-new costume for their children this year, 24 percent planned on making a costume and 11 percent plan to recycle a costume or borrow one.
Between the costumes, the decorations and the candy, local landfills take a hit during the holiday. Here are six tips to make creating a costume fun and sustainable:
1) Start by looking in your own closet, or your child’s closet. It’s easy to put a few different prints together with some makeup for a clown costume, or tie a scarf around your head to become a fortune teller. You could even break out that old bridesmaid’s dress and be Miss America.
2) Rather than buying costume makeup, which can contain all kinds of chemicals and minerals like cadmium, make your own, or use cosmetics you already have in a new way. By mixing cornstarch, a solid shortening and food coloring, you can create any color you want.
3) Consider swapping costumes with a friend. It’s cheap, easy and a great way to try something new without breaking out the sewing machine or the glue gun. GreenHalloween.org has a list of costume swaps available here.
4) Take a trip to the local Goodwill or thrift store. Not only might it inspire a great idea, but you’d be recycling those old clothes, rather than letting them sit on the rack or end up in the dumpster.
5) Do you have a friend that works construction? Know any nurses? Borrowing a uniform can make for a great, and very authentic, Halloween costume. There’s nothing like the real thing to make the illusion complete.
6) Think outside the box. Some of the best costumes are visual puns, like writing Freud on a slip to become a “Freudian slip,” or attaching socks and dryer sheets to your clothes and going as “static cling.” The possibilities are endless.