Guernsey Waste is encouraging islanders to think about reducing the ‘scary’ amount of waste that is produced at Halloween.
Waste Prevention and Recycling Officer, Tina Norman-Ross said: ‘’Thousands of Halloween pumpkins, costumes and sweet packaging are thrown away every year. And while it’s certainly a time for us to come together and have fun, there are things that we can all do to limit any negative impacts on the environment, ourselves and tackle plastic pollution.’’
Waste reduction can start with the traditional Halloween pumpkin. Islanders buy hundreds each year to carve as jack-o-lanterns, but the best (and tastiest) parts of the orange vegetable are often forgotten about and end up being thrown away.
Delicious pumpkin recipes can be found here. Any leftover pumpkin can be recycled with your food waste or home composted.
‘’It’s all about trying to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can,’’ said Mrs Norman-Ross.
Here are some top tips to help you have a more sustainable Halloween:
- Think twice before buying new costumes. Consider purchasing from charity shops or ask friends if they’d like to do a costume swap or even better, get creative and recycle an old outfit.
- There’s no need to go crazy with the quantities of sweets. They could be mixed up with some alternatives. Why not try tangerines with scary faces drawn on them?
- Start a Halloween decoration box and keep any costumes for the following year. That will save you money and you’ll know that you already have everything at hand.
- Hundreds of pumpkins are thrown away each year. Get baking or cooking instead!
- A key thing we can all do to help tackle plastic pollution is to make sure that we are disposing of it properly and recycling all we can. Please remember that it’s only household packaging such as pots, tubs, trays and bottles that can go into your blue bag. Other plastic items such as
bulky plastic toys, buckets and containers can be recycled in the rigid plastics bin at Guernsey’s Longue Hougue Household Waste & Recycling Centre.
In Guernsey, subsidised home composting kits can be purchased for £10 (RRP £35.00) from the following garden centres: Earlswood Garden Centre, R H Gaudion & Sons Ltd, Guernsey Gardens, Le Friquet Garden Centre and Queux Patio Plants.
