Halloween

For active and fit people, Halloween is the first of a long series of holidays that will interfere with our good habits. It’s definitely a very fun day, but parents, to be honest: who has never found themselves rummaging in the halloween basket with the excuse of “I’m doing this sothe kids will not get cavities!!”??

I did it. Try to be mindful of the extra candy you’re taking in, and make sure to limit and/or balance with your regular healthy foods and exercise.

Halloween is also a holiday of waste: a new costume every year, pumpkins just for carving, and plastic candy wrappers. 

I would like to give you some eco-friendly and nutritional tips to fight the waste of this holiday.

Trash Candies

Another waste is the production of fake candies, all the “artificial flavor” products are not food. Buy less, but better. Don’t make your kids eat fake food and don’t feel that throwing those treats away is like wasting food, because it’s not food. 

If while trick or treating your kids get “plastic” candies, explain to them that those are not food and it’s better to throw them away. Help them understand what real food is and teach the new generation to take care of their nutrition habits. 

Jack-o-Lantern

The pumpkins also play a role in the Halloween waste. An estimated 1 billion pounds of pumpkin are sent to landfills in the aftermath, where they produce harmful methane gasses as they decompose.

How about this year we carve, and then we use the carvings to make delicious dishes? That’s a yummy and eco-friendly option! 

Pumpkin soup (check the blog recipe https://www.giorgiafitmindset.com/blog/showup-an995-5flxh ), savory italian pumpkin pie (coming soon), pumpkin pie. 

The Costumes

Last year, approximately $3.2 billion was spent on Halloween costumes in the United States. With the average costume price ranging between $77 to $96, that’s over 35 million costumes purchased. The scariest part? Most of these disguises are encased in non-biodegradable plastic. Plastic packaging accounts for 30% of the United States’ solid waste every year according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Halloween costume industry certainly doesn’t help.

You can save money and reduce Halloween costume waste by repurposing old clothes, shopping at thrift stores or sifting through your grandparents’ closet.

Candy Wrappers

The candy. Oh, the candy. Most of those fun-sized candy bars that have become synonymous with Halloween are wrapped in plastic that’s notoriously difficult to recycle. We can do better taking care of the wrappers. 

An easy solution is to collect them and recycle them together, check your local stores as some of them might collect them. Here in Boulder, last year “Nude Food” was doing that. 

For example, Rubicon, a recycling solutions company, has aimed to lessen candy wrapper waste through its Trick or Trash program. Schools and businesses are given boxes to collect up to 10 pounds of candy wrappers, then sent off to be cleaned, ground up, and transformed into plastic pellets that can then be recycled into plastic products.

Have fun and enjoy your Halloween - but try to keep these tips in mind!

Happy Halloween – Treat Yourself