Boo to Plastic

The new Clean Cornwall Halloween Campaign, urging communities to avoid the temptation of disposable plastic products this year.

This year, we are yet again urging communities to avoid falling for the temptation of single-use Halloween themed products. The “Boo to Plastic”  campaign has been launched in an effort to reduce litter, minimise waste and improve Cornwall’s collective environmental impact over the Halloween period. The campaign will be taking place across several social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #bootoplastic. We encourage everyone to share their reused costumes, plastic free treats and examples of unnecessary plastic products to avoid.

Surveys conducted by Fairyland Trust and Hubbub in 2019 revealed that 83% of Halloween costumes being sold online are made from oil-based plastics- which are very rarely recycled - with just 1% of clothing textiles being recycled into new clothes. Previous research by Hubbub also revealed that 7 million Halloween costumes are disposed of each year, indicating that 2,079 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in the UK each year by Halloween costumes alone. 

The problem doesn’t end with clothing. Halloween decorations sold by the million each year are equally pervasive and disposable. For example, many may not be aware that the faux cobwebs that can be picked up at a number of stores during Halloween are most commonly made from polyester - an oil-based plastic. Following Halloween festivities, these plastic cobwebs have been found embedded in wild bird nests in countries around the world including Australia and the UK. These cobwebs in particular closely mimic the natural nesting materials that many species of birds rely on, making it easy for animals to become entangled or ingest them, ultimately harming our already depleted wild animal populations for the sake of a one-time-use party decoration. 

We were very vocal last year about how wasteful Halloween is, from individually wrapped sweets to costumes you will never wear again, the whole holiday is plagued by single use products. We’re continuing the campaign this year to encourage communities to resist the temptation of cheap plastic junk, protect our environment and save your money for something that isn’t going straight in the bin on the 1st of November. We expect to see a big rise in litter just after Halloween, and we’re preemptively thankful to the hundreds of volunteers across Cornwall that will be undoubtedly trying to remove this litter from our paths, towns, rivers and oceans after the holiday.