Let’s Clean Up: Halloween, From Fake Webs to Candy Wrappers
How to make your yard, porch, candy bowl, party, pumpkins, and post-Halloween cleanup a little less terrifying for the planet.
Halloween has a trash problem.
There are the decorations that get used once. The foam tombstones. The glow sticks. The plastic tablecloths. The candy wrappers. The synthetic spiderwebs stretched across shrubs. The pumpkins that go directly from porch to garbage can. The package of 72 plastic vampire fangs purchased because 12 was not an option.
And then, somewhere around November 1, all of it disappears.
Except, of course, it doesn’t.
So for this round of Let’s Clean Up, we’re taking on Halloween.
Not by canceling the candy or telling you that your 12-foot skeleton is questionable. Frankly, if you already own that glorious beast, I hope he gets a name and his own room.
We’re just cleaning things up a little.
First: Costumes Are Already Covered
Take a look at our deep dive into costumes, because Halloween clothing deserves its own conversation.
The short version: shop your closet, thrift, borrow, swap, and make something weird before buying another polyester costume destined for a mere few hours of fame.
Lose the Faux Webs Outside—For Real
This one is less about waste and more about wildlife.
Those stretchy synthetic spiderweb decorations might look appropriately creepy wrapped around bushes, railings, and trees, but birds and other animals can become tangled in them.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service specifically warns against using artificial spiderwebs outdoors, and wildlife rehabilitators have treated birds caught in the material. Audubon notes that Halloween also falls during fall bird migration, when millions of birds are moving through unfamiliar territory.
So: if you must have them, fake webs stay inside. We suggest buying ones with longer life so they can be used Halloween after Halloween. (Another option: skip the dusting for a while. You’ll have real webs in no time.)
Outside, try:
Cardboard or wooden silhouettes
Pumpkins and gourds
Reusable fabric ghosts
Old sheets
Lanterns
Big cut-paper shapes placed inside windows
Branches from your own yard
Decorations you already own and use year after year
And avoid loose ribbon, fishing-line-like filament, and dangling string outdoors for the same reason: wildlife does not understand it’s decor.
Field Tip: Nature already made actual spiderwebs. They are free, zero waste, and the spiders handle installation.
Buy Atmosphere, Not 47 Objects
One of the easiest ways to green Halloween is to stop measuring decorations by quantity.
You do not need the entire seasonal aisle.
Instead, think like a set designer. One big reusable skeleton. Three carved pumpkins. A creepy soundtrack. Window silhouettes. A lamp behind an old white sheet. A spotlight pointed at an existing tree.
Suddenly your house looks haunted without acquiring a plastic graveyard.
Let’s Talk About Lights
Halloween lighting can create a lot of atmosphere with very little stuff.
It can also create unnecessary light pollution.
Many migratory birds travel at night, and artificial light can attract and disorient them. Audubon and other conservation organizations run Lights Out programs during spring and fall migration for exactly this reason.
You don’t need to celebrate Halloween in total darkness while trick-or-treaters stumble into the shrubbery.
Just be intentional.
Aim decorative lighting down instead of into the sky. Keep it where people actually need it. Use timers. Turn off the dramatic stuff when trick-or-treating ends.
Spooky until 9. Dark Sky after that.
Learn more about bird-friendly Halloween decorating from Audubon.
The Candy Wrapper Situation
Most candy and snack wrappers are made from flexible, multilayer materials that generally aren’t accepted in curbside recycling programs.
TerraCycle offers specialty recycling options for some candy and snack packaging, although programs vary and some require purchasing a collection box.
Which means the best strategy starts before Halloween.
Don’t buy four Costco-sized bags when you typically get a total of 37 kids. This is not the time to be hopeful.
Buy treats your household will actually eat afterward.
If your school, neighborhood, workplace, or community group creates a significant pile of wrappers each Halloween, consider organizing one central collection instead of expecting individual households to solve the problem.
Check out candy and snack-wrapper recycling options.
Throw a Party. Skip the Landfill Starter Kit.
Halloween parties are another sneaky source of single-use everything.
Plastic tablecloth. Plastic cups. Plastic forks. Plastic plates printed with adorable ghosts. Plastic cauldron. Plastic eyeballs floating in punch. Plastic spider approximately every eleven inches.
You get the idea.
Before buying themed disposable party supplies, raid your own kitchen. Real plates are allowed at Halloween.
Put drinks in a pitcher or dispenser. Use mason jars for candles. Serve popcorn in big bowls with tongs instead of individual bags. Pick one reusable Halloween tablecloth and let it become the one your family uses every year.
And be careful with the word compostable.
Many products labeled compostable require commercial composting facilities and should not go into ordinary recycling. EPA recommends choosing compostable food-service products only when you actually have access to a composting program that accepts them.
Give the Pumpkin an Exit Plan
Before you carve your pumpkin, decide what happens afterward.
If you want to compost it later, skip paint, glitter and plastic decorations.
Roast the seeds. Use edible pumpkin when it is still fresh and safe to eat. Then compost the rest at home or through a local organics or yard-waste program if one is available.
Food is the largest category of material going into U.S. landfills, and when organic material breaks down under landfill conditions, it produces methane. Composting keeps those nutrients in circulation instead.
And please don't haul old pumpkins into the woods because Facebook told you you're feeding wildlife. Leaving pumpkins for wildlife can attract animals to roads and homes, disrupt natural feeding habits, spread disease where animals congregate, and expose them to paint, wax, glitter, or other decorations they were never meant to eat.
Skip the Glitter
Glitter has somehow infiltrated Halloween like an extremely sparkly invasive species.
For outdoor decorations, skip glitter entirely. Most conventional glitter is essentially tiny plastic confetti: once it blows into soil, storm drains, or waterways, it is nearly impossible to clean up and can be swallowed by birds, insects, and other wildlife.
For Halloween makeup, use cosmetics actually intended for skin rather than craft products. The FDA regulates Halloween face paint as cosmetics and recommends checking labels carefully, particularly around the eyes.
Make November 1 Part of Halloween
Do not treat cleanup as an afterthought. When decorations come down, sort them.
Store: Things you'll use again.
Repair: Decorations that need five minutes of glue before going into storage.
Donate: Good stuff you genuinely won't use again.
Compost: Clean and compost pumpkins and natural materials where appropriate.
Recycle: Only materials your local program actually accepts.
Trash: The things that truly have no next life.
Then label the Halloween storage bin.
Future You should not have to buy more Halloween decor because Present You tossed it all into a mystery tote containing Christmas lights, an extension cord, and a pool noodle.
The Three-Question Halloween Test
Before buying something, ask:
Will we use this more than once?
Could we borrow, thrift, make, or use something we already own instead?
Do I know what happens to it when we're finished? And, can I live with that?
The goal isn't a zero-waste Halloween. It's simply fewer things designed to become trash before November even begins.
Halloween should leave behind good stories.
Not an entire garbage bag.
