By Olivia Decastro
Columnist/ Photography Editor & LogosNow Gallery Manager
Soon it will be Halloween season! There will be candy, pumpkin spice lattes, spooky decorations…and piles of plastic from discarded costumes and leftover candy wrappers. While we are planning costume parties and stocking up on sweets, there’s something else we should be thinking about: how much waste will haunt us way after Halloween night.
This year, Halloween spending is expected to reach a record $13.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. About 71% of those people plan to purchase costumes, resulting in estimated spending of $4.3 billion.
Store-bought costumes are full of nasty microplastics. They’re often made with materials such as synthetic fabrics like nylon or polyester, which sheds when washed. Thus when costumes are thrown out, since most costumes are only used once, and end up in landfills, the microplastics make the pollution more detrimental to the planet.
“Definitely get costumes second hand,” said Dr. Schott, AP Environmental Science and biology teacher. “We get a lot of our kids’’ clothes from the consignment sales and this time of year there’s a lot. You can get costumes for your little kid that you know is being passed down.”
This is so true! Just last year, I thrifted my entire costume (Velma from scooby doo) at my local Goodwill, which was a bit hard because most of the inventory there was somebody’s grandma’s or millennial mom clothes, but it still ended up how I envisioned it.
Now, this may be intimidating for a newbie thrifter, but starting out with a very basic costume idea and being open to different variations of that is a great way to start. Going to thrift stores who have more intentional inventory catered towards recent trends, like Plato’s Closet, also makes it easier to find a secondhand costume.
Another huge contributor to Halloween waste is candy wrappers. Now, don’t get me wrong I love a good Twix bar or Twizzler strip (yes I know, hot take), but most of those candies are wrapped in single-use plastics, the Earth’s worst nightmare.
“When single-use plastics get out into the environment, they break apart and get small. It’s a particular problem with the oceans. There are some places where you see beaches with just an immense amount of trash, mostly plastic washes ashore. So not only does it look bad, it’s also bad for wildlife and us” said Dr. Schott.
Candy is often the most popular purchase for the NFR survey during Halloween, with total spending expected to reach $3.9 billion out of $13.1 billion total. According to my calculations, this is over 780 million pounds of candy. That’s more than 1,700 times heavier than the Statue of Liberty.
Resolving the problem of excess candy wrappers is harder than fixing the problem of excess costumes. One possible solution is recycling your candy wrappers to companies like Terracycle, which our school will be using this year, and Rubicon or by buying cardboard based candies like Nerds or Milk Duds.
You may be wondering at this point: but Olivia, how can I do anything? All of this seems so distant, what can I do in my community? Well, I have exciting news for you! We have opportunities right here at Harpeth Hall to minimize costume and candy waste.
Harpeth Hall’s Green Club has been working for the past 2 years to combat these issues through their annual Costume for Kids drive, which collects old costumes for the Boys and Girls School of Nashville, and candy wrapper collection drive. Hadley, Vice President of Green Club and Sophomore Sustainability Representative, explained the plans for the candy wrapper drive this year. She said, “If the seniors do the trunk or treat again, we would really love to create some spooky fun boxes and collect all the candy wrappers from all around Harpeth Hall campus.”
The candy wrappers are normally collected through Rubicon’s Trash or Treasure initiative, and are sent to their facility to be cleaned, chopped up, and heated up into tiny plastic pellets that are then used for items that require plastic, which is most products in our world. Rubicon’s initiative simultaneously limits waste produced by candy wrappers and creates new items from reused plastic to mitigate the amount of harmful plastics in our environment.
“It’s really important because Halloween, though we may not realize it, does generate a lot of waste” Hadley said. “It’s great to be able to redirect that, especially when it’s not a huge burden or a huge task. If the community comes together to help us with these drives, we can actually make a much greater impact”.
So, as you are planning your costumes and shopping for candy this year, be mindful of the impact you make. I hope that a lot of you aim to minimize this waste by participating in the drives mentioned above. Until next time! Stay green!