If you've been grocery shopping lately, you've probably noticed a strong increase in the plastic decorations and bulk candy. Yes, it's Halloween! The celebration doesn't seem to work anymore without a lot of additional waste and other environmental pollutants. Unless we decide to make that change there is a predefined right way, that is guaranteed to please our children?
For Halloween candy is traded against natural healthy foods. It is almost a must, though healthy options to exist.
While I do understand unpackaged or homemade snacks do not work for the door-to-door trick or treaters, this is not the only time treats are exchanged.
Whether the snack is to be offered to family and friends or it is for yourself there are plenty of opportunities to add something healthy into the festivities. Nuts, fruits (oranges disguised as pumpkins or dried fruit for example), dried plant based chips, pumpkin muffins (without added sugar), fair trade dark chocolate … The alternatives are as broad as your imagination.
To reduce waste, bulk options help eliminate some of the packaging that comes when we stock up the snacks for trick or treaters.
These ideas are not just suited for Halloween, but are easy to incorporate into our everyday lives.
Here are a couple of concrete actions for everyday life that we have implemented:
- Recycle: There are many ways to recycle don't hesitate to sell or donate your appliances, clothes, toys, etc. your family is no longer using and are still in good working order or condition.
- Drink tap water instead of bottled water. Opt for a sink filtration system that is simple and quick to install. These sink filter systems significantly reduce your waste in water bottles. Imagine year-round how many plastic bottles you won't throw away with your water filter! In addition, you will save a lot of money. When my family switched we were going through eight bottles a day, nearly 3,000 a year. Now we go through zero.
- Reuse: Coffee? Tea? Consider bringing your own cup to work, which you can wash and reuse throughout the day. Use a reusable bottle to hydrate yourself. At the end of a day, you will have saved around ten cups: imagine this waste saving achieved over a week, a month and a year!
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