GOING GREEN – October 2024

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How to have plastic-free fun!

I saw my first Halloween decoration on a front door in Henley on the 1st October. Some people might think it’s just a bit of fun, but when I see black plastic balls with a big golden plastic spider, I know it will end up in landfill for years until it breaks down into tiny fragments that eventually will come to no good in some animal’s gut or in the sea.

Plastic is so pervasive now – in the air we breathe and in the food we eat and sadly inside many living creatures. There are plenty of ways of having fun without harming nature and the environment. The picture below shows a dead bird caught up in the ‘fake spider’s web’ that some people cover their hedges with at this time of year for a bit of fun.

Hardly fun for the birds, solitary bees, moths and other insects that get trapped in it. We don’t have to buy into this – we can all have fun without this harmful rubbish.

Actually if you leave your hedge alone you will find hundreds of little gossamer webs covering it naturally at this time of year. And if you want some to see real drama on your hedge watch closely as the spiders catch and dispatch their prey.

According to the Wildlife Trusts, Halloween costumes are made up of 90% plastic – just think of the fire risk you are giving your child to wear! An incredible 7 million Halloween costumes get thrown away each year in the U.K. But this waste is easily avoided.

Think of how much more fun your children would have if you give them a box of old clothes bought from a charity shop or a jumble sale, or (dare I say it) even found in their granny’s wardrobe. With some cardboard, black paper, pens, wool and a bit of ingenuity your youngsters could improvise no end of scary creatures without causing harm to any living thing.

If you are thinking of having a party for Halloween or a Non-Halloween party there are lots of alternative activities and things to amuse your families which doesn’t involve plastic. For instance making an autumn wreath for the front door with twigs and some leaves that are naturally beautiful at this time of year. Decorate the outside of old jam jars with leaves to make lanterns.

Carving a pumpkin is good fun for all the family – but make sure you don’t waste the pumpkin inside. Sadly, a horrifying 8 million pumpkins are thrown away in the UK each year. Roasted pumpkin seeds are a great healthy snack (and expensive to buy) while the pumpkin flesh will make good soup and/or pumpkin pie.

Please don’t leave your old pumpkin lying around for the wildlife to eat. They can be fatal to hedgehogs so the advice is to compost them in your bin or hang them from a tree to feed the birds.

Get the children to help bake and decorate shaped biscuits. How about making toffee apples, fudge or mint creams? Who needs to buy plastic wrapped sweets? Even the youngest child could join in
decorating satsumas with a felt pen, with close supervision of course unless you don’t mind indoor graffiti.

The Wildlife Trust and other websites have lots of ideas on ‘How to have a plastic-free Halloween’ or you could ask older relatives what they used to do pre-plastic.

Understandably, not all parents want their children involved in Halloween activities. Traditionally autumn would be the time of year for celebrating the year’s harvest. This would have been the time to make preserves like pickled onions and red cabbage. Do you know anyone who could teach you how to make lavender wands and bags or corn dollies? The October half term is a good time to make the Christmas cake so it has time to mature.

Perhaps you could involve older family members in these creative activities too – my bet is the memories you make while doing them will last much longer than the consumables.

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