By Aaron Lancaster
University of Georgia

Thinking “green” on the orange-and-black holiday isn’t always our
first notion. But Halloween doesn’t have to be a parade of
plastic decorations headed for crowded landfills. It can remind
us of easy ways we can reduce waste year-round.

Community costumes. Rather than
buy a costume your child (or you)
will wear once and throw away, make one out of clothes you
already have. Thrift stores and yard sales often have low-cost
clothing and items suitable for costumes, too. And after the
holiday, donate usable clothes and accessories to day care
centers, schools or community theaters.

Bag it. Decorate paper grocery
sacks with nontoxic paint to
create your own trick-or-treat bags. Or use canvas bags,
pillowcases or reusable buckets to collect goodies year after
year.

Bio decor. Nature intended for
apples to be eaten. But you can
transform any you didn’t eat into spooky shrunken heads for your
holiday decor. All you need are some apples, whole cloves, a few
grains of rice, a cup of lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of salt.

Peel the apples, and coat them with the lemon juice and salt to
prevent them from browning. Then carefully carve a face into the
fruit with a peeler or knife. Insert cloves into the carved eye
socket to make beady eyes. Rice creates the teeth.

Put the apples somewhere dry and warm for one to two weeks, and
watch them shrink and distort. If time is short, put them in an
oven at a very low temperature.

Reduce, Reuse, Redecorate. Reuse
Halloween decorations from year
to year. Properly storing decorations not only reduces waste and
saves money, but also preserves the personal value steeped in
these items.

Keep it simple. Choose Halloween
treats that use the least amount
of packaging or useable items like pencils, pens, small toys or
coins.

Teach your children well. Candy
wrappers often litter
neighborhoods after Halloween. Litter is ugly. It’s costly to
clean up, too, and could cause ecologically important creatures
to die needlessly after mistakenly eating plastic and other trash.

Enjoy the season. Walk, ride a
bike or use public transportation
to Halloween parties or trick-or-treating. If you have to drive,
carpool to help reduce traffic and air pollution.

Eco-Lanterns. Use rechargeable
batteries to power flashlights,
lanterns and decorations to reduce the amount of harmful
materials you throw away. They will save money in the long run.
Even better are hand-crank and magnetic flashlights, which don’t
need batteries at all. You can order them from catalogs.

Discarded batteries produce most of the heavy metals found in
household trash. Lead, arsenic, zinc, cadmium, copper and mercury
can be harmful to humans and wildlife.

Great Pumpkin. Pumpkin seeds from
jack-o’-lanterns create a tasty
snack for two- and four-legged critters alike. Carefully wash
pumpkin seeds to remove the clinging, fibrous pumpkin tissue. Set
them outside in a sunny place to feed wildlife.

For humans, dry pumpkin seed treats in the sun, a dehydrator (1
to 2 hours at 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit) or an oven (on “warm”
for 3 to 4 hours). Stir them often to avoid scorching them.

Once the seeds are dry, toss them with oil, salt and other
seasonings. Roast them in a preheated oven at 250 degrees for 10
to 15 minutes.

Hollowed-out pumpkins filled with ears of Indian corn, seeds,
apple cores and skins and cleaned pumpkin seeds make a festive
feast for wildlife.

After Halloween. Recycle pumpkins,
shrunken apple heads, straw
used for scarecrows, hay bales and any other organic material in
compost piles.

Compost improves the texture and quality of poor soils while
reducing waste. Backyard bins are much more efficient than
bagging leaves for collection.

Contact your county Extension Service to learn more about
composting. Or check the on-line publication at
www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/c816-w.html.

(Aaron Lancaster is a Bibb County Extension agent with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)