Scarily unsustainable

Un-masking halloweens Frightening environmental impact and exploring sustainable solutions.

Halloween costumes are one of those once-a-year purchases and aren’t generally reworn but with 500+ brand new Halloween costumes available on Second-Hand platform, Vinted it seems the trend of single use costumes has gone too far.

According to environmental group Hubbub 83% of halloween costumes are non-recyclable and 7 million halloween costumes are thrown away yearly. Therefore, the ones that end up on Vinted are a rare and precious few.

Furthermore, costumes are far from the only unsustainable part of Halloween (cough cough pumpkins). Research has shown that Halloween as a whole contributes 2000 tonnes of plastic waste to the environment (this mostly comes from the sweets mind you, but masks and plastic based costumes don’t help the matter).

Halloween may seem like a fundamentally wasteful holiday, however there are steps that we as consumers can take to make a positive change. for example, costumes should Ideally be reworn or made up of items you already have in your wardrobe. Makeup based costumes are also a more sustainable choice - a little bit of makeup and fake blood is far less wasteful than an entire new costume. Furthermore, buying costumes second hand is a great way to reduce waste and incentivise reselling costumes rather than throwing them away. Additionally, consider swapping pieces with friends or keep an eye out for any clothing-swap events held around Halloween.

By Katy Falkingham