California Center for Sustainable Energy

Consider alternatives promoting health and sustainability

Halloween is traditionally associated with orange and black, but if you are environmentally minded, the goblin holiday can also be green.

For the candy, costume and decorations industries, Halloween is already green – worth an estimated $6 billion annually. Unfortunately, most of these consumables are not very earth, health or people friendly, even if you like sugary junk food. There’s a huge amount of waste material involved, much of which is nonrecyclable.

You can make greener choices for Halloween by repurposing, reusing and rethinking your choices for treats, costumes and decorations. According to the organization Green Halloween, it’s the parents who have the hardest time accepting the idea of getting away from conventional holiday traditions. Kids today are quite savvy about health and environmental issues, and for the most part, welcome the idea of greener alternatives.

Here are two websites with plenty of green Halloween activities, games, costume suggestions, alternative treats and more for parents, kids and schools: www.greenhalloween.org and www.planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/halloween/.

You’ve probably never considered making a scarecrow from a reused phonebook, but you can. You can even make more environmentally friendly decisions when buying candles. The possibilities go on and on and will have an impact lasting much longer than those bite-sized candy bars.

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