To think that Halloween is proof that Cop26 is pointless and will achieve nothing?

[AngelicaElizaAndPeggy]

Sorry this is quite depressing.

I'm just looking at the 4 nice pumpkins that are sitting in my kitchen. They have been grown, probs using quite heavy-duty pest control and fertilizer chemicals and then transported to the massive Tesco's superstore where I bought them. You could also buy loads of plastic imported Halloween tat like masks, face paints, novelty pumpkin carving kits and big banners with things like 'Enter if you dare grrr' written in blood.
On Sunday night, my kids dressed up in their flammable fancy dress outfits and set off round our street where there were big mounted voldemorts hanging from doorways, ghost fairy lights and even a light projector that beamed skulls onto the side of a house making spooky sounds.

AIBU to panic about the massive tide of pointless ruff we buy in places like superstores, b&m, the range and home bargains? And others, those are just the first ones I think of? Unless we stop importing and buying all this pointless stuff, we are going to completely choke the planet with carbon, plastic and toxins. I'm as guilty of it as anyone and it makes me feel sick at just the sheer enormity and inertia of it. Unless we address our addiction to buying mass produced, imported stuff, everything the bigwigs in Glasgow decide to do will be pointless. But, if we do stop buying plastic tat, then our service based consumer economy will collapse. So I just feel utterly hopeless about the whole thing.

Sorry this is a massive rant.

@WalkingOnTheCracks

I’m prepared to do my bit to combat global warming, but I draw the line at eating pumpkin.

Pumpkin is delicious!

Seriously who needs 4 pumpkins

Me, pumpkin curry, pumpkin soup, pumpkin stew, roasted seeds, homemade pumpkin coffee.

I hope pumpkins remain popular. We've had 7 so far and eaten entirely (we have pets that can eat any leftovers in modernization too.

I do wish they did pumpkin puree in the tins like America. Pureeing yourself is quite the mission.

Don't buy plastic tat is the obvious solution. Or do buy it and reuse it. My parents still use their Xmas lanterns circa 1980. Probably more eco than buying the expensive tat marketed as eco.

A lot of this is about time though. I don't grow my own pumpkins because I don't have the time space or skill to grow as many as I want.
Why shouldn't I outsource that to a local farm. Isn't that what civilization is about?

This is like people complaining the beach they're at is busy 🤔

@BelleOfTheProvince

Tesco sells pumpkin puree. Or you can get it on amazon. I've got 5 tons in my cupboard!

Have you got 4 children OP? If so best thing you can do is not have any more

*5 tins!

I grew our pumpkins and the kids wore what they had with some white face paint. And I made the decorations out of felt and cardboard.

I get your point though.

[quote ImUninsultable]@BelleOfTheProvince

Tesco sells pumpkin puree. Or you can get it on amazon. I've got 5 tons in my cupboard![/quote]
Oh good to know. Sadly no Tesco's nearby but I will squirrel that factoid away for the next time we pass a Tesco Extra.

We need to adjust our expectations massively.. it’s like a social pressure/compulsion some people feel to buy into all the tat. Decorations and new costumes are often literally trash within hours of buying them.
It’s so wasteful and it’s like we think we can’t stop.. but we can just stop. Just don’t buy it? Decorate with candles. Decorate with cut out paper decorations the kids have made or what you already have. Goes for christmas too!

@speakout

Who gets to decide what is "tat" though?
A White Company candle?
Yet another pair of Jimmy Choos?
Gucci perfume?

There is a grat deal of expensive shite polluting the planet- it isn't all stuff bought by the great unwashed at B&M.'

Totally agree - to me, tat is anything we buy that we don't actually need.

In my head, I had thought that 4 pumpkins was kinder for the planet than plastic decs, but actually, is it? Don't have any Halloween plastic decs and never have. But actually, this is probs just as bad.

No, yanbu. I hate it - I look at all that plastic tat and just see more landfill. It's genuinely depressing. I get that it's difficult with kids sometimes, and I'm certain I wanted (and got) my share of plastic tat as a child but now it's just all seems so pointless and wasteful.

I've wondered about plastic pumpkins vs real.

The plastic is probably cheap waste oil from the fuel industry, so what else would happen to it.

The real pumpkins will rot back into the soil, but were probably grown in a field that would have been used for other crops like turnip or carrots.

[quote AngelicaElizaAndPeggy]@speakout

Who gets to decide what is "tat" though?
A White Company candle?
Yet another pair of Jimmy Choos?
Gucci perfume?

There is a grat deal of expensive shite polluting the planet- it isn't all stuff bought by the great unwashed at B&M.'

Totally agree - to me, tat is anything we buy that we don't actually need.

In my head, I had thought that 4 pumpkins was kinder for the planet than plastic decs, but actually, is it? Don't have any Halloween plastic decs and never have. But actually, this is probs just as bad.[/quote]
You can get paper ones

Admittedly I left it too late, but I might have still gone for paper it did occur to me I didn’t need a real one

The plastic is probably cheap waste oil from the fuel industry, so what else would happen to it.

Do you really think that????

Have you any clue about how plastic is produced?

Well they certainly don't extract crude oil just to make plastic tat.
Plastic was developed from the oil that can't be used for fuel, lubricants.

Where do you think it was developed from?

I'd be really miffed if pumpkins became demonised so I couldn't buy one in the autumn.
It's a seasonal food. Eating local(going to a pumpkin patch near you) is good for the environment.
It's just an easy way to appear virtuous whilst making no real sacrifices or changes to your life(like reducing your meat consumption or limiting it to local)

Also, did I mention I like pumpkins. All pumpkin seeds sent to my address in a sealed envelope. They won't go to waste but I will probably get hibernation style round

It's dumb to demonise pumpkins in isolation. Why are they worse than cut flowers? Holly wreaths? Christmas trees?

I get the concern that as society as shifted to consumables as the main way to celebrate (with industries spending billions to encourage this) that it makes trying to shifting away to more sustainable options more difficult. Part of the issue will be shifting away from that, but it's only a part of it.

You can say the same about any holiday or celebration and really, those are a drop in the ocean compared to industries that we really need governments to focus on. The governments could support the many attempts into non-oil based plastics that have been around but struggled for funding while there continued to be subsidies and other protections for the oil industry - even if we cut down on tat, medical areas and similar will need them. There are many 'points' that need tackling that have little to do with us as individuals.

Pumpkins and pumpkin seeds can be a really useful food and encouraging their growth here can have benefits. I would love to be able to buy British pumpkin seeds for eating. For decor though, I have mostly are paper though I was given a ceramic pumpkin candle lantern as a gift that I use, but that's largely because I've not yet got the skills for pumpkin and I'm already struggling with dealing with all the apples and pears (moved house this year, never had fruiting trees before so still working on managing that better).

So does this mean those who don’t buy the plastic tat and are appalled about the waste and carbon footprint that Halloween produces are also going to give fireworks and bonfire night a miss as when the fireworks go off, the metal salts and explosives undergo a chemical reaction that releases smoke and gases into the air. That includes carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen—three greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change.

Or will you all forget your principles to ohh and ahh and claim it is for the children and it would be mean to deprive them when we are polluting the very air they breathe.

adding my voice to the 'why buy it'
we have decorations (not as much as christmas) but we keep them and use them every year

You can get paper ones

That just brings up a different environmental question though. Paper production isn't without its flaws in that respect. Plus, they don't last as long. Also, where have the paper decorations travelled from?

I don't buy "disposable" plastic items where I can avoid it. My Halloween Tat comes out every year, as does my artificial Christmas tree (20 years and still going strong!)

It's a question of balance.

@SoupDragon

You can get paper ones

That just brings up a different environmental question though. Paper production isn't without its flaws in that respect. Plus, they don't last as long. Also, where have the paper decorations travelled from?

I don't buy "disposable" plastic items where I can avoid it. My Halloween Tat comes out every year, as does my artificial Christmas tree (20 years and still going strong!)

It's a question of balance.

Yes it still comes from somewhere but I will keep it.

To a certain extent, yes, we can all make changes in the way we live to decrease our negative impact on the environment. But the main cause of the problem is not the average person on the street.

For example, look at the plastic polluting the water. 90% of the global ocean debris comes from 10 rivers. www.condorferries.co.uk/marine-ocean-pollution-statistics-facts It is the responsibly of the governments in those countries in which the rivers reside to sort that out. And if these countries are disadvantaged for whatever reason, then the richer countries like the UK should help. We should be helping them clean up their rivers rather than banning plastic straws, which are an important aid for some people with disabilities.

It's so hypocritical of people like Prince William to have a go at the rest of us about over population and the impact that has on the environment. He has three children who have probably already created a carbon footprint larger than 1000 children. He is telling people to limit the number of children they have to two, perhaps he should limit the number of holidays he has a year to two?

We can all try and reduce the amount of “tat” we buy, but there are fashion houses like Burberry that are burring loads of perfectly fine stock at the end of the season rather than put it on sale. Because then poor people might buy and wear Burberry which would damage the image of the brand. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44885983

The problem isn’t people having the heating on, the problem is private jets. Rather than tell people the sit and freeze all winter, we should ban private jets from out air space.

Improving the environment is about choices and each individual has a choice. They can buy a reusable bottle of water; they can recycle their single use plastic bottle of water, or they can send it all to the landfill and the ocean. Each company has a choice. They can burn £28.6 million of stock, or they can put it on sale. They can pump loads of industrial waste into the ocean, or they can dispose of their waste responsibly or better yet not make as much. Each government has a choice, they can ban plastic straws and make people buy carrier bags or they can help clean up the rivers that cause 90% of ocean debris and ban private jets. And back to the individual, they can be a nuisance causing more pollution by blocking the M25 or they can constructively campaign for change.

We reuse the same decorations each year, one pumpkin for our family of 4, and get costumes that are really Pjs and use them to sleep in for months afterwards-‘like bat man PJs etc!

Don't buy plastic tat is the obvious solution. Or do buy it and reuse it. My parents still use their Xmas lanterns circa 1980. Probably more eco than buying the expensive tat marketed as eco.

This. Also, OP you could have chosen not to buy such things. No one forced you to. You chose to buy flammable fancy dress than using the clothes your children had available. You could have done a Google search or look at Pinterest for ideas without buying the fancy dress stuff in stores. You could have used paper for pumpkins and/or Halloween decorations Could have made it an activity for your kids to make their own, and hang them up or put them into the ground (weather dependent) of course.

There are choices and some of the items you described such as the lights could be used again. You could use those for Christmas and say the theme is “The Nightmare before Christmas”.