Friday, October 21, 2011

Green Halloween

There are lots of things you can do to make your Halloween greener. Please read all or part of this post, depending on what applies to you.

1) Pumpkins: You can cook your pumpkin and make it into a pumpkin pie or another kind of sweet food. Some people say that you can only cook special kinds of pumpkins, but you can actually use any kind. The seeds taste fairly good roasted, but make sure to put a bit of spice on them first! (You could also mix them into a casserole.) Here are a few links to pumpkin recipes (but remember, the point is to be eco-friendly and use your Halloween pumpkin!): http://www.boutell.com/vegetarian/pumpkin-pie.html which also tells you how to prepare a raw pumpkin, http://www.theppk.com/2008/10/pumpkin-oatmeal-cookies/ or use another recipe. If you really don't want to cook with it, then try this: bury your pumpkin in your yard/garden. It will compost and make the soil richer!

2) Candy and trick-or-treating: If you are handing out candy, I suggest giving them something like organic vegan granola bars. Sure, there is still wrapping, but at least there is less impact on the environment in the process of growing the ingredients. Of course, you could even hand out fruit, but some kids or parents might throw it away because they don't want it or are afraid it is contaminated! If you are trick-or-treating yourself, well, my first advice is don't, but if you really want to, please donate most of your candy to the food bank, because most of my candy always went rotten before I ate it.

3) Halloween parties: It depends on what kind of party you're going to. If it's the sit-down-eat-dinner sort of thing, perhaps you could bring a vegetarian dish (even if you aren't veg, it still helps the environment on a once-in-a-while basis). If it is an activity-based party, then perhaps you could do some outdoors-y activity. Just keep the environment in mind at all times!
Thanks, eco-trekkers!

PS: A group called Ecomentors is holding a youth conference on November 5, so check out their website! ecomentors.ca

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