Halloween Waste

Halloween fun doesn’t have to be limited to the night. What if there was a way to dress up in your favourite Halloween costume, hang out with your friends and community, and contribute to a cleaner Edmonton? Introducing Trash And Treat!

It’s simple. Wear your October finest, grab a trash picker and bag, then head out to a local park, roadway (safety first!) or area needing litter clean-up. The more litter we can clean-up before the snow, the nicer spring will be.

Share both the results from your litter-picking and how great your costume is using the hashtag #TrashAndTreat!

Finding a sustainable Halloween costume should be like buying any other article of clothing – consider the materials, the cost to create the costume, and whether you’ll continue using the costume in future years (or into your regular wardrobe!)

• Visit your local thrift store to find the components of your costume.
• Reuse costumes year-over-year.
• Exchange costumes with friends or family, or in a clothing swap.
• Ask your community – local tailors can hem, take in or add material to make your costume a perfect fit for you and your parties.

Halloween candy might be everyone’s favourite part of Halloween, but those plastic candy wrappers add up. However, food safety is just as important. How can you give trick-or-treaters the Halloween they deserve?

• Buy candy packaged in cardboard – Mike And Ikes, Glosettes, Smarties, Nerds – for a treat that can be recycled after!
• Cans of pop or sparkling water for older children, as aluminum is infinitely recyclable.
• Visit a Bulk Barn or similar bulk supply store to buy only what you and your trick-or-treaters need. You can even find paper and foil wrapped candies like saltwater taffy and Hershey’s Kisses!

• DIY your own Halloween decorations. Use paint to make figurines spooky or add an extra colour pop to dried leaves. Create centrepieces made of food that you can eat after the holiday!
• Think outside the box: project scary images onto your house or use coloured lights to get in the holiday spirit.
• Orange pumpkin plastic bags for yard waste are festive, but leaving the leaves and yard waste in your garden is better for the local ecosystem. Pollinators use fallen leaves and yard waste to overwinter and come out in the spring.
• Old and unusable cotton cheesecloth is a good alternative to fake spider webbing.

• Try home composting your pumpkin(s). While it may be too cold in the year to start a new compost pile, planning ahead for next year can create a compost pile that will keep working through the winter. Visit the City of Edmonton’s website for more info.
• Before you put your pumpkin in your food scraps cart, ask a neighbour if they need it for their compost pile. Do your neighbours have chickens? They would love a pumpkin to peck, just make sure there are no toothpicks or paint on them.
• Carve other gourds, like squash!
• Make a meal plan for your pumpkin before carving. Wait to carve your pumpkin until just before Halloween. Roast the seeds for a healthy snack and roast the pumpkin itself for pies, soups, ravioli fillings and more!
• Try growing your pumpkins too — they grow well in Alberta’s climate, can be pollinated by hand, and each vine can produce multiple pumpkins, enough to share with family and friends.