A trick not to waste treats 🎃

The scary side of Halloween and its contribution to waste🚮?

On the 31st of October every year, Halloween is fiercely celebrated in North America and Europe. It is less popular in Oceania and rarely ever celebrated in Asia and Africa. A ‘celebration’ that dates as far back as the 4th century, Halloween originates from the Ancient Celts festival ‘Samhain’, a pagan religious festival at the cross of fall and winter.

Photo Credits: Keo Oran via Unsplash

Halloween has morphed over the centuries and in the modern world is a fusion of pop culture and its Ancient Celts history. Some of the key practices around Halloween is ‘trick-or-treating’, a way for kids (and even adults) to go crazy on candy and meet a lot of their neighbors #communitybuilding. And of course, everyone gets to play dress up! It may be as their favorite superhero, a classic villain, a TV character or a ‘totally made up’ character. There are lots of parties leading up to Halloween and on the day too. Gatherings for kids to have fun with their peers, or adults to have some wine. But fun is not the only side of Halloween.

Every year, 24 million pumpkins are estimated to be bought in the UK for carving as part of the Halloween celebration. While these pumpkins are perfectly fine for consumption, their primary purpose is to be carved, displayed for celebrations and quickly tossed afterwards. In 2020 (the infamous COVID-19 year), 25,000 tons of pumpkins were estimated to be wasted in the UK alone! I say COVID-19 year because many were struggling, rough sleeping in the UK grew by 36%. Yet the pumpkins wasted can fill almost 900 40 ft containers. Now if these figures just represent the UK, imagine the exponential increase across Europe, North America and Asia. The UK is only 0.025% of North America and 0.031% of Australia (part of Oceania).

Photo Credit: SCARCE via Resource

The world has changed significantly since the 4th century, when the origin story of Halloween was written. And with the changes in the world, so also must our practices. While some still believe climate change is a hoax #fakenews, we can all attest to our changing environment. Summers are hotter and longer, landmass is shrinking, wildfires are getting ‘wilder’! And our leaders have no clue how to solve it. COP26 hosted by the UK this year has been called a flop given the lack of tangible and decisive decisions. Want to leave the fate of our planet in the hands of leaders that can’t decide? I say we ‘the people’ make the changes. Every movement starts with one step.

No one is perfect, I still drive a petrol car. But with my tote bag, I use fewer plastic bags, I avoid restaurants that use plastic takeaway packs (if I can) and I try to travel with my bicycle when I can. On average, my net contribution to greenhouse emission gases and waste have been declining year-on-year for the last decade. Saving our home 🌎 is likely to be achieved with ‘many small changes’ and not ‘one radical change’. So if you can, think about an alternative activity to pumpkin carving, or make it into a soup after. That is a trick to save treats, let’s leave the scary side of Halloween to the costumes 😉.

Photo Credits: Ariana Suárez via Unsplash

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