14 Oct 2022 • 2 minute read
As an eco-conscious company, sustainability is at the centre of what we do. Our Green Gift Cards are sustainably produced and printed in the UK. As the spooky season is creepin’ up, for a bit of fun, we have rounded up our top spooktastic tips for a scarily sustainable Halloween. (Had enough puns already? Brace yourself for more.)
For one day of the year, we (the UK) create a lot of plastic waste in the name of spooks and scares. A 2019 report from Fairyland Trust and Hubbub found that every year the UK produces 2,000 tones of ‘Halloween’ plastic waste from costumes, decorations, and sweet wrappers). Including the 7 million costumes binned annually, with 4/10 only being worn once!
It is estimated that 12.8 million pumpkins will be thrown away this Halloween because people don’t realise that the insides are edible.
All this waste seems incredible… and expensive! With all of us keeping a close eye on our budgets, sustainable options are often not just better for the environment but cheaper as well. What is there to lose? Give some of our tips a try.
One of the highlights of Halloween is receiving sweets. (Especially the leftover ones from the trick-or-treaters.) However, sweets and chocolate come with a lot of non-recyclable packaging. These wrappers are already small, but they become even more dangerous to the environment as they break down.
Our top tip is to buy pick n’ mix sweets (no wrappers) or chocolate in recyclable packaging to reduce unnecessary waste.
If you are looking for a trick, why not give away fruit? Especially seasonal fruit with little to no associated travel mileage. Fruit has no packaging and is biodegradable. However, we cannot guarantee you will not be tricked back if the little monsters are expecting a sweet treat!
The stores are lined with cheap Halloween decorations. As fang-tastic as they look, how likely, are you to keep them? Most are made from cheap, easily broken plastic. Our top tip is to release your creativity and make your own decoration with what you will have around the house. Give your “rubbish” a second lease of life and recycle your decorations once you have finished. Check out the links below to our favourite eco-friendly Hallowe’en DIYs.
Eggbox Bats
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/857372847783090244/?nic_v3=1a5ZmZoFP
Paper cobwebs
https://onelittleproject.com/paper-spiderwebs/
Milk carton ghost lanterns
https://eighteen25.com/todays-project-spirit-jugs/
Halloween costumes can be expensive to buy in-store, look cheap, are uncomfortable and don’t last. As mentioned before, 7 million of them end up in the bin each year!
Our top tip is to think before you buy. The Instagram-perfect costume has taken the fun and creativity of Halloween costumes. Be creative! See what you can make with what is already in your wardrobe. There are stacks of inspiring ideas for DIY costumes on Pinterest and Instagram.
Try a local costume swap or charity shop if your wardrobe is not inspiring you. Work some wizardry or witchy magic and give a second life to a spooky costume.
Did you know that just under half of the 18,000 tones of pumpkins brought every year will be eaten? That’s millions of pumpkins left uneaten. But why? All pumpkins are edible, even the ‘carving’ pumpkins. Check out Hubbub’s #EatYourPumpkin campaign.
Our top tip is to make and bake delicious treats with your pumpkin after carving. Check out our favourite places to find pumpkin recipes.
BBC Recipes
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-20-pumpkin-recipes
Hubbub
You might not be able to make your Halloween 100% sustainable (A for effort if you do!). But when it comes to sustainability, we go by the rule of ‘do what you can’. If all of us made an effort or one small change, it would create a big difference.
If you have any questions on how to make your company ‘greener’, contact a member of our team today.
We hope your Halloween is hex-tra special!
Greener
Compostable and recyclable
Cheaper
Save up to 40% compared to plastic
Quicker
Turnaround average 20 working days
Introducing our range of plastic-free cards
Since 2006 we have been innovating and disrupting in the card market to develop what is a leading range of environmentally-friendly card solutions. So what sets us apart?
Well that’s the thing, there’s a number of reasons why Green Gift Cards are renowned in the world of card production. It is the material we use for our cards and the certification that the cards come with. It is also the compelling environmental story (we urge you to watch the video) that is behind all of our cards and the fact that, once finished with, our cards are compostable and can be recycled in normal household waste streams. Oh and we’ll say it again – being environmentally-friendly doesn’t mean they are more expensive. In fact they offer great value compared to plastic cards.
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