How to keep Halloween ‘trash’ to a minimum this Waste Reduction Week – Port Alberni Valley News
Canada’s Waste Reduction Week takes place in the third week of October and focuses on a circular economy. On weekdays, people deal with important issues of waste management and material flows: textiles, electronic waste, plastics and food waste. The weekend encourages you to extend the life of these products/materials through the sharing economy, swapping and/or repairing.
How can we incorporate these concepts as we prepare for Halloween?
No matter how you celebrate, Halloween tends to generate a fair amount of tiny packaging (treats), single-use plastics (cheap decorations like cobwebs/cheap costumes), and lots of food waste (pumpkins)!
Conjure up a crafty Halloween by decorating your garden
You don’t have to go to the dollar store to buy a garbage bag full of glowing skulls, fake spider webs, and plastic pumpkins. Instead, choose epic, fantastical upcycled pieces of art to craft. My favorites are the ghost or monster milk jugs, toilet paper roll bats, mummy stones, and pumpkin lightbulbs.
Or bring decorations from nature, maybe dry leaves or pick twigs to make a Halloween wreath. And consider using reusable LED tea lights instead of candles in your pumpkin and bringing them out next year to reduce waste. Check out the endless ideas online and use what you have available in your home to decorate.
Clothing from Halloweens past
Decide on a unique costume! This Halloween, why not be thrifty and scour local thrift stores for a spooky find. You can find a complete second-hand outfit or piece together parts of a costume from second-hand clothing. They can even arrange a costume swap if you’re looking for something specific, or ask family and friends about any spare accessories they may have.
Going old school with paper mache and cardboard to make your costume yourself is always a good idea.
The night of…
Avoid single-use plastic bags and opt for cloth bags, like pillowcases, to store treats. When you’re doing conventional trick-or-treating, sampling is inevitable, but encourage your kids to avoid litter by bringing an extra bag for rubbish or recycling.
All that crumpled little packaging you find on rockets, little candy bars and potato chips can all be recycled in the other flexible plastic category for Recycle BC’s Pilot Waste-to-Energy program. Although these are not accepted at curbside pickup, the 3rd Avenue depot along with the recycling station at the AV Sort’nGo Center (formerly AV Landfill) accepts.
Smartie boxes can be recycled as cardboard (accepted in the Curbside program). And how about this costume? Don’t throw it in the trash, consider donating it to a thrift store, or check to see if the theater needs costumes.
Post Halloween
Great that we now have the option to toss our leftover pumpkins in the compost bin (remove candle butts and wax), but make a treat out of it if possible. Turn the pulp into a delicious pumpkin pie or cheesecake and roast the seeds for an easy snack or birdseed
It’s also worth noting that given the number of black bears that have been sighted in the community over the past month, reducing the available attractants is crucial to minimizing the number of human-wildlife interactions.
Halloween often comes with lots of light-up toys and decorations. But on November 1, they are often disposed of with other household waste without removing the batteries. A large percentage of batteries are not recycled properly and chemicals end up in our environment so make sure you dispose of your batteries properly.
Stay up to date with Sort’nGo!
Visit www.letsconnectacrd.ca/organics for more information about the Organics Collection Service and to ask questions. You can also visit the Sort’nGo – ACRD Recycling & Organics Facebook page at facebook.com/ACRD.recycles for weekly tips and updates for the Valley. If you are a community group, local business, or school teacher, you may contact the ACRD to schedule an educational presentation.
Alberni Valley Community Recycling