Earth911 updates guide to eco-friendly Halloween decorations
Earth911 has refreshed its popular article on sustainable Halloween decorations, adding two new DIY ideas to reduce holiday waste. Originally published in 2017, the guide emphasizes using recycled materials for fun, environmentally kind crafts. It highlights seven easy projects suitable for families.
Halloween often leads to significant waste from disposable costumes, candies, and decorations, but Earth911 encourages greener alternatives through homemade crafts. The updated post, published on October 7, 2025, builds on its 2017 version by including two additional ideas, focusing on upcycling items from recycling bins.
The guide starts with upcycled jack-o’-lanterns made from clear plastic bottles. Users remove labels, draw faces with a black marker, fill three-quarters with water mixed with orange paint, and shake to color the liquid. This creates a reusable pumpkin that can be rinsed and recycled afterward. For outdoor use in freezing climates, it advises not filling to the top to prevent bursting.
Next are spooky terrariums using glass jars like empty pickle jars. Gather moss, twigs, pinecones, rocks, and optional Halloween items such as skulls. Build a scene on the jar lid, inscribe 'RIP' on a rock for a gravestone, then screw the jar on top. These can be recycled or repurposed for other holidays.
Ghostly hanging leaves involve collecting leaves, painting them white, drawing spooky faces, and attaching string for hanging on chandeliers or trees. A BOO board uses scrap wood, like discarded fence boards, painted with designs including bats and cobwebs for display on mantles or doors, storable for reuse.
Yard monsters come from flattened paperboard, painted white with drawn eyes tied to shrubs. The new additions include tin can lanterns: freeze water-filled cans, punch Halloween patterns like stars or bats with a hammer and nail, then light with tea lights or LEDs for reusable glow. Toilet paper roll creatures are painted into bats, owls, mummies, or Frankensteins using googly eyes and scrap materials, ideal for displays or garlands and compostable after use.
The article stresses creativity with recycling to enjoy traditions while lowering environmental impact.