Green Halloween Tip 1: Trick or treat with reusable bags

When the little ghosts and goblins in your family go trick-or-treating this Halloween, make sure they carry reusable bags or containers that don’t need to be discarded after they are used.

Cloth or canvas shopping bags, or even pillowcases, make terrific eco-friendly alternatives to paper or plastic bags, or to the molded plastic jack-o-lanterns so many kids use to collect candy at Halloween.

Green Halloween Tip 2: Make do-it-yourself costumes

Instead of buying a Halloween costume that you or your children will wear once and throw away, make your own costumes from old clothes and other items you already have around the house.

You can also get inexpensive Halloween costume materials from thrift stores or yard sales, or your children may have fun trading Halloween costumes with their friends to get something “new” and different to wear.

Green Halloween Tip 3: Give eco-friendly treats

When the neighborhood ghouls show up at your door this Halloween, give them treats that also treat the environment gently.

There is a growing variety of eco-friendly candy—from organic chocolate to organic lollipops—available online and from local organic groceries, health food stores, or consumer cooperatives. These organic candies can satisfy your sweet tooth without compromising your health, and they are produced using methods that don’t damage the environment.

Green Halloween Tip 4: Walk instead of driving

Rather than drive to other neighborhoods to take the kids trick-or-treating, stick close to home this Halloween and walk from house to house to reduce fuel consumption and air pollution.

If you are attending a Halloween party, use public transportation or ride your bicycle.

Green Halloween Tip 5: Make your Halloween party eco-friendly

Host a Halloween party that features organic, locally grown pumpkins for carving, apples for bobbing, and other pesticide-free, locally grown foods appropriate to the holiday and the harvest season. Organic produce is now widely available at many grocery stores as well as farmers’ markets and stores specializing in organic food.

Once the jack-o-lanterns have been carved and the games have ended, the apples and pumpkins can be used in pies, soups, or other dishes. You can also roast the pumpkin seeds and serve them to your guests as a special Halloween treat.

Use dishes, cutlery, napkins and tablecloths that can be washed and reused instead of disposable plastic and paper tableware.

Green Halloween Tip 6: Reuse and recycle

If you don’t already compost, Halloween is a great time to start. You can add post-Halloween jack-o-lanterns to your compost bin, along with fallen leaves, food scraps, and other organic, biodegradable yard and household waste.

Compost creates excellent soil for your garden. You might even use the compost from your backyard bin to help grow the pumpkins that will become next year’s jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies.

Green Halloween Tip 7: Keep Halloween clean

Teach your children to keep candy wrappers in their reusable trick-or-treat bags until they return home, or to dispose of them in trash cans along their route.

Preventing candy wrappers from becoming Halloween litter on the street is the right way to treat the environment.

Take along an extra bag when you take the kids out treat-or-treating, and pick up litter along the way to help clean up the neighborhood.

Green Halloween Tip 8: Keep it going

Living an eco-friendly lifestyle and reducing waste and pollution should be a daily event, not a special occasion. With a little thought, you can apply the strategies you use to have a green Halloween to the way you live every day.

Reusable bags are a great way to shop every day, and can be used for everything from regular trips to the grocery store to back-to-school shopping. Any time you go shopping, take along a reusable shopping bag or two to carry home your purchases and keep the planet a little cleaner.

The same goes for using cloth vs paper napkins and washable vs disposable cutlery. Using reusable items instead of disposables will help the environment and also save you money.

You get the idea. If you make living an eco-friendly lifestyle a daily commitment, both you and the environment will benefit.