Trick-or-treating is a fun tradition, but let’s face it: It’s not very healthy for your kids or Mother Earth. Millions of individual wrappers go into the landfills, and god knows what ingredients (dyes, sugars, chemicals) go into your babies’ tummies. Yuck! How can you be an eco-friendly and/or health-conscious participant?
1. Stock up on “responsible” candy. If you can’t bear not to pass out candy, try the Natural Candy Store. Yes, there are still a million wrappers, but at least you can choose the kinds of candy you want to give out. Gluten free? No problem. Made in the USA? You got it! Organic? Definitely! You can find all of these at this store, and more (though not ALL products fall under these categories – make sure you check the key).
Natural Candy Store: Organic Ghost Lollipops
2. Spread the UNICEF word. You can have your children ask for UNICEF donations instead of candy, which is a great way to help kids realize that they can make a difference!
3. Give out pennies instead of candy. If you feel confident that you won’t get TP’ed during the night by angry trick-or-treaters who wanted candy, LOL, then give out pennies and other coins. It’s a great way to get rid of all that pesky pocket change, and the kids can spend it, or donate it.
4. Make or buy reusable trick-or-treat bags. Google “eco-friendly trick-or-treating” and you will find a million ways to make trick-or-treat bags from pillowcases! Remember: think fabric or metal (avoid plastic if you can). And make sure it is not too “young looking” so your kids can use them year after year without feeling silly when they are older.
5. Use chocolate to help endangered species. All you chocolate connoisseurs already know how good the Endangered Species Chocolates are. Hand out the individually packaged chocolate squares and some of the profits from your purchase will go toward helping endangered species.
Endangered Species Halloween Dark Chocolate
Want some more tips for healthy trick-or-treats? Check out Green Halloween!
This post was previously published in 2009 on my other blog.
I *love* the UNICEF idea – I did that one year and it was really successful. All that packaging on candies is what especially makes me nuts about the holiday – so very wasteful. Great post!
BTW for how kids (and big kids) can make & decorate Mexican sugar skulls I found a great link – http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/sugar_skulls/instructions.html
@EcoGrrl: Oh, cool! This is great!
Something I am doing this year is donating to America’s Toothfairy: http://bit.ly/rj2K08 instead of giving candy. I am going to give an information packet in hopes of raising awareness and a healthy treat, like nuts or a fruit pack. Every little bit helps!
@Greta: Very cool!
I really want to make Halloween candy from Fair Trade chocolate. I’ll still have to individually wrap them, though…I’m pretty sure people would be afraid to eat them otherwise. They’ll probably be afraid to eat them, anyway. Oh well. Maybe over time I can figure out the ideal goodie to hand out for Halloween, but right now I love the idea of making candy with my little boy and letting him be part of the giving process.
@Lisa C: I know what you mean – sometimes there isn’t a way to avoid individual wrapping. But I think making your own candy is awesome! Yay!