• Daily Tip: Halloween with Less Waste,
• Green Style How-To: Supermarket and No-Sew Halloween Costumes,
• Five Super-Simple Steps to Green Trick-or-Treating,
• Daily Tip: Wholesome Sweets

By now you may be groaning, "Oh no, not another green Halloween post about making your own costume and giving out pencils," yet this green idea flips the holiday over on the concept of Fair Trade.

Think about Fair Trade in the simplest terms, as a young child may define it. If I give you something, in exchange you will give me something of equal value, whether monetary or not. For example, children trading marbles will exclaim, "That is not fair," if they do not view the marble exchange as equitable. In a child’s mind, Halloween is not an equitable trade… they make out like bandits while trick-or-treating! All they have to do is sport a costume and knock on their neighbors’ doors to receive lots and lots of candy! It is definitely not a Fair Trade! Global Exchange proposes a change to this custom by promoting "reverse" trick-or-treating.

Reverse trick-or-treating is an educational campaign aimed at informing households about the "social justice issues in the cocoa industry, and how Fair Trade certified chocolate works to end poverty." Families participate by knocking on their neighbors’ doors and giving them Fair Trade chocolate. Instead of only receiving sweet treats, children get to give them out, too. It’s a fair trade. The Fair Trade chocolate is accompanied by flyers explaining how Fair Trade benefits children in cocoa farming communities. One flyer includes a letter of protest to the CEO of World’s Finest Chocolate and a letter for parents to give to their children’s teachers about Fair Trade curriculum. Another flyer states,

Despite six years of promises from major chocolate manufacturers, little has been done to tackle the documented problem of forced child labor on many farms that supply their cocoa. Moreover, low cocoa prices have left cocoa farmers in poverty year after year. There is a SOLUTION, and all you have to do is eat chocolate!

Even though the deadline to officially sign up for Equal Exchange’s reverse trick-or-treating has passed, you can still participate in your own campaign and report your results. Imagine the look on your neighbors’ faces when your costumed children give them Fair Trade chocolate! I propose that children can still receive goodies while reverse trick-or-treating, thus I think the term "exchange" trick-or-treating offers a better description of the activity. Goodies for adults may be different than treats for children, but the idea of fairly trading goods on this holiday instead of the one-way giving of tradition is an interesting idea. Unless we put the "trick" back into trick-or-treating, exchange trick-or-treating offers a great solution for turning Halloween into a socially responsible holiday.

Instead of spending $15, $20 or more on your child’s (or your own) Halloween costume, you can save both money and resources by creating your own. Dig through your closets or browse local resale shops and flea markets for vintage clothes that could make fun costumes. Or put out a request through your local Freecycle or craigslist for used costumes. You’re probably not the only person in your neighborhood to have a few costumes from Halloweens past buried in the back of your closet.

You can also hand out Halloween treats with an Earth-friendly, educational twist. Dog-Eared Publications, for example, sells $2.50 sticker books about endangered animals, forest creatures, marine mammals, sharks and wetlands, among others. Or use Halloween as an opportunity to help others by trick-or-treating for UNICEF or collecting old eyeglasses that can be recycled by Gift of Sight.

For eco-friendly ways to generate a Halloween atmosphere around the house, consider setting out a solar-powered gargoyle, or replacing your regular lightbulbs at home with spooky, mini orange- and black-colored compact fluorescent bulbs. Or charge up some small outdoor solar lanterns during the day, and place them in real or fake pumpkins or luminaria for a renewable ghostly glow at night.

When it comes to decorating your house for Halloween, think reused, recycled or natural whenever you can. HGTV offers a good assortment of homemade costume, pumpkin and decorating projects, but if you want to keep it simple, stick with natural Fall accents: locally-grown pumpkins, gourds or Indian corn, wreaths of colorful Fall leaves or mini-gourds, and beeswax or soy candles in Fall colors.

Finally, take the time in the weeks before to enjoy what nature’s best at in autumn: take a walk through a forest preserve to soak in the fall colors, pick your own apples or pumpkins from a local organic farmer, go for a hay ride or wander through a corn maze. Visit PickYourOwn.org to find the pumpkin patches closest to you.

Also on GO:

Five Super-Simple Steps to Green Trick-or-Treating

I’m going to try and recreate them for Halloween and holiday gifts in place of pumpkins and candles. Maybe add a stencil designs to them like the word "Boo" or a picture of a star or ornament. The only concern I have is the toxicity of the glass frosting spray that I used. The spray definitely made me feel a bit faint at the end of the day and I couldn’t help but hum the tune from Macgyver.

Sun jar instructions:

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/homemadesunjar

Supplies needed: Handy assistant, frosting spray, jar, solar lamp, iced mocha to keep up with the excitement.

Don’t blink!

Oh you blinked and missed the set up because it was that quick!

See more here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earth2joy/sets/72157602337039519

*The title of my flickr set "How to make a BOMB ass sun jar" was in reference to me trying to get through security for my flight home. They did search my bag and instead of saying "science project," I told them it was my solar lamp gift per my smart cousins’ husband’s suggestion.

When you make your own confections, you have control over what goes into it. You can choose organic or Fair Trade ingredients and how much or what kind of sugars you use. Alternatives to refined white sugar include honey, real maple syrup, raw sugar, and even apple sauce.

Substituting some ingredients may require a little experimenting and a few trial runs, but once you find the right combination you’ll have a better alternatve ready to go for next time.

Creating goodies at home is also great activity to involve the kids in, and they’ll be more likely to eat what they’ve had a hand in helping bake.

Amy says: Care 2 Living has some green candy recipes including Maple Candy, Pull Taffy and Pumpkin Seed Crackle. I’ve also found some great recipes at FoodNetwork.com and Epicurious.com. Right now they’re featuring a ton of fun and easy Halloween treats.

More October Fun from Green Options:

Seasonal Eating: Ode to the Local Fall Pumpkin

Five Super Simple Steps to Green Trick or Treating

Getting your little ghosts and goblins ready for Halloween while attempting to minimize your impact might seem scarier than global warming, but it’s so simple: you’re probably already doing at least one of these things.

1. Use reusable candy-collecting bags. Simple, easy, and ensures that your large stash of candy won’t end up all over the street from a less-than-durable plastic bag. Avoid those plastic pumpkins, too. They’re made of petroleum, and you can only use them once a year.
2. Handing out treats for trick-or-treaters? They’ll get enough conventional candy from your other neighbors. Try healthier alternatives (for both kids and the planet) like honey sticks, fruit leather, granola bars, organic chocolate, or boxes of raisins. Avoid food altogether and give pencils, erasers, mini toothpastes, soy crayons, or stickers.
3. Don’t drive your kids around. I’m amazed at how many kids’ parents (even in Missouri’s mild October weather) drive them around the neighborhood. Part of the fun of trick or treating when I was young was the thrill of walking around the neighborhood at night. Save the gas and get your fill of the night air.
4. DIY your costumes. Avoid the plastic and vinyl monstrosities at the discount store and create your own from things at your house or secondhand stores. Your costumes will cost less, look better, and your kid won’t be one of seventeen Dora the Explorers or Thomas the Tank Engines you run into.
5. Use trick-or-treating as an opportunity for stewardship. After trick or treating, bring a separate bag for your kids to pick up the inevitable candy wrappers left by less-savvy munchkins.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget us adults - we deserve to have as much fun as the kids, right!? The 8 No-Sew Costumes feature, first published in 2005, still has a host of great ideas and unique ensembles: "with supplies from the craft store, supermarket, thrift shop, and your closet, you can create fantastic disguises without a stitch." The great guises to choose from include a bubble wrap jellyfish, spider web mother and sock spider baby, garbage bag witch, tulle ghost, coffee filter godmother, umbrella bats, silk leaf swamp couple, and a feather and felt raven. Just reading the names of the costumes springs to life a host of green options, such as those socks in your drawer that you never found a match to (sock spider baby), that broken umbrella that you don’t know what to do with (umbrella bat), and the last must-have item that you ordered online that came with [gulp] plastic packaging (bubble wrap jellyfish).

What as your favorite past Halloween costume?

Can you think of a way to make it more sustainable or easily recyclable?

Fair Trade is proving that an economic system that focuses on a triple-bottom line (considering people, planet and profit as equally important outcomes of business operation) can work, and work better, for everyone and everything involved. October is Fair Trade Month and Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Month page says it best: this is indeed "a great opportunity for people throughout the United States to support, promote and celebrate a socially responsible system of trade that prioritizes the needs of human beings and the environment over the drive for profits."

So this is the month to get involved and make some collective noise about economic justice and sustainability. One great way to shout out is to direct a video about Fair Trade for the Connect with Fair Trade Video Contest. Doing so could just end in your visiting a Peruvian Fair Trade farming co-operative courtesy of TransFair. If you make a great video and end up winning, I also suggest you write to GO editor Jeff McIntire-Strasburg and offer to do a write-up of your experience in Peru.

According to TransFair, 56% of people who are aware of Fair Trade make a point to purchase Fair Trade certified products whenever available. Help increase awareness and availability of Fair Trade products by encouraging your local grocery market to carry Fair Trade and participate in the Fair Trade month celebration. TransFair makes it easy with educational marketing materials and contest promotions to intrigue customers.

Perhaps my favorite Fair Trade month promotion joins activism and a great holiday, Halloween. Order your Fair Trade Trick or Treat action kit from Global Exchange, and you’ll have everything you need to tell others just how boo-tiful(!) trade can be: tasty chocolate from Equal Exchange, and knowledge of a better way to trade.

At the very least, talk to your friends and family about this idea, email this article around, whatever little bit you can do to just keep the Fair Trade buzz growing.