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.

And all the crap synthetic dressing up costumes and accessories, which will go to a landfill near you.

We grow pumpkins commercially they are the lowest sprayed crop we have they don't get any herbicides post planting or pesticides only one spray for disease during the year which is put on months before harvest so is well outside the minimum harvest interval. As for the decorations most of mine are older than my eldest dd and reused every year, costumes are either handed down or homemade (dd2 in particular loves to go unusual) or doesn't have to all be disposable.

I have reused my decorations for years, and put them away carefully each year. This year admittedly was new - some paper ribbon to make a spiders' web, that I will compost. Pipe lagging (that I needed for winter anyway), some cable ties, bit of fence mesh from garden, a football from garden, black tape, 1 black bin liner and some garden string to make a spider to hang in the web - most of that will be reused in the garden/house, the string and black sack will be composted, and only the tape and 2 cable ties are actual waste.

I bought a few pumpkins, but haven't carved them as I wanted to keep the flesh for use in the kitchen and didn't have time this week. I make soup, muffins, roasted veg etc with them, and want to dry the seeds this year as I use those in my smoothies. I used to do this when we grew our own pumpkins too - they take a bit of space but not THAT much if you wanted to try it next year (I had to give up my allotment and only have a tiny garden now so they take more room than I have).

And the flammable costumes were around when I was a kid in the 70s. But then, and now, HM costumes were also common - there were a few came to our door on Sunday in old clothes made into something spooky, and there was definitely at least 1 cereal box made into a witches hat.

I don't think it's impossible to change things. Economies change all the time and if businesses go under as a result that's a sign they're not able to adapt for the changing world. Sad, but not insurmountable. The trick is equipping future generations for change. It's not beyond our wherewithal to change from a consumerist economy to a more sustainable one. It will, however, require a significant redistribution of wealth. Impoverished people often don't have the luxury of environmentally sound principles when the consequence is literally starvation in some cases.

I totally hear where you are coming from OP and I agree wholeheartedly. Halloween tat has exploded. Shops are full of Christmas tat already, elf on the shelf, christmas eve boxes, gift sets, stupid secret santa "novelties", decorations....

Just so much STUFF.

There needs to be a huge attitude shift away from buy buy buy the cheapest stuff into buy second hand, re-use what you have, swap with friends.

Things like World Book Day and school learning festivals/performances where you are told to send your child dressed as an Egyptian, Viking or Tudor need to STOP. People posting "hauls" from fast fashion shops - STOP. Second hand uniform shops in schools should be the norm.

Problem is, there are a lot of people out there who have very weird attitudes about used stuff, or second hand stuff. Going to take a long time to turn that around.

I agree with others that you can choose not to buy all the crap. You can make do and mend in respect of dressing up (and re-use), make a turnip lantern with the DC (and eat most of it), and curb the sweets and plastic, for a start.

You don't have to buy into the hideously commercial shite that is Pumpkins & Plastic.

I've been using the same (cardboard) decorations for 30 teats. I bought local pumpkins which will be composted. You don't have to do any of the resource heavy stuff

We'll all mock the hypocrisy of Boris flying back to London by private jet but then none of us are really doing enough to change our habits in any meaningful way either.

Speak for yourself. I (and many other people) continue to make small but significant lifestyle changes. You can scoff from the sidelines and carry on as you are - but 100 people making some change is a good thing.

Problem is, there are a lot of people out there who have very weird attitudes about used stuff, or second hand stuff. Going to take a long time to turn that around.

Equally, there are a lot of people on eBay and Facebookmarketplace that try and charge you the price they paid for their secondhand stuff.

Just bought Ds a (hopefully warm) winter coat from eBay. It's slightly cheaper than buying new from Asda bit I had to trawl through pages of people trying it on £10 for a toddler Primark coat- I'd be amazed if they paid that to begin with at Primark.

There are eco pros and cons to me getting it secondhand. Getting it posted to me is probably less exo than new ones arriving in store in a truck. It's also a bit of a gamble as it might not be good quality, warm, good condition. All stuff you can check in-store.

People need to start passing things on at reasonable prices as an eco gesture-not try and claw as much money as possible from those that do buy secondhand.

I've had some Halloween decorations for fifteen years and I've never thrown any away. Even when I got rid of 99% of my belongings to go travelling I didn't bin anything. Stuff was passed on to friends and family (even things like spices and bottles of ketchup) or sold at a carboot, donated to charity or sold online.

Someone earlier made a dig that the UK is going the way of the USA.
I just wanted to point out that our pumpkins are grown very locally and storing decorations from year to year is also the norm here.
Obviously the USA has issues but we aren't all throwing away expensive Halloween decorations every year.

It's not just clothes though, is it? Many posters on here are horrified at the idea of buying a second hand toy or game as a present for their child.

Wouldn't buy second hand furniture, or paintings, or ornaments, plates - anything household related.

As a pagan, what you call Hallowe’en is a very special time, known as Samhain.
We spent it outdoors, with some bread and wine as offerings to the Old ones, and our ancestors, told stories about our departed loved ones, lit homemade candles, ate food we’d made together. We had a squash that one of my friends had grown, to eat, not to sit on a doorstep.
We follow a green path, so we treat lightly on the Earth, because we want to live with respect, and in harmony with Nature. Why not try things differently next time? Get out into the woods and fields, see what’s growing in the garden. Tell your children stories about their family who they have not met. You don’t have to be pagan, or give offerings , just as a more positive way of celebrating.,

@KingsleyShacklebolt I couldn't agree more.

I buy lots of second hand for my 2 DS's. Admittedly the older they get the harder it is especially for ds13 but I've always done this interspersed with the odd new thing here and there.

Same goes for my household stuff, infact I'm going to pick up a leather sofa this eve that I've just paid £250 for, I reuse wherever I can if Possible.

I was having a conversation with a Mum at the DC's school who was horrified about me buying second hand ( for myself as well as the boys ) she said she could never buy second hand for her dc's and felt it was beneath her and dirty.

She's wealthy and to her there is nothing worse than preloved. We do ok financially as well but to me it's environmental as well as it just makes sense that if you can buy something that's still in decent condition then it can still be used, ds 8 has all of his bothers hand me downs and really doesn't care in the least.

Perhaps this does stem from when I was a single Mum 18 years ago with my older two, it just made more sense. I know it's not particularly environmentally friendly having a larger family though.

Last Xmas we bought the boys preloved bikes, I have purchased ( very expensive ) pre loved Star Wars Lego too! don't get me wrong I use new things too but where I can I buy preloved, I can't think of many things we have that aren't tbh. Even down to the ( very lovely ) white company super king bedding we sleep in - bought almost immaculate from eBay for 1/4 of the price

@UseOfWeapons

As a pagan, what you call Hallowe’en is a very special time, known as Samhain. We spent it outdoors, with some bread and wine as offerings to the Old ones, and our ancestors, told stories about our departed loved ones, lit homemade candles, ate food we’d made together. We had a squash that one of my friends had grown, to eat, not to sit on a doorstep. We follow a green path, so we treat lightly on the Earth, because we want to live with respect, and in harmony with Nature. Why not try things differently next time? Get out into the woods and fields, see what’s growing in the garden. Tell your children stories about their family who they have not met. You don’t have to be pagan, or give offerings , just as a more positive way of celebrating.,

It's going to be tough persuading a ten-year-old that sitting in a field listening to dad reminiscing about his nan is more positive than dressing up as Hulk and clearing the neighbourhood of funsize Twix.

I guess we all just have to take personal responsibility for our own actions and reduce what we consume as much as possible. As with all these things, some people will do a lot and others nothing at all (unless forced due to changes in the law). The big changes can come from manufacturers. Food packaging is a good example. Some people will continue to buy vegetables in packaging unless they can no longer do so, because they can.

If plastic Halloween tat wasn’t available to buy then no one would buy it.

We did Halloween without buying pointless plastic tat or new costumes (we used stuff we already had and adapted it - witch, vampire & Frankenstein's monster) . We also grew our own pumpkins and ate the flesh we scooped out - although the kids moaned about it, DH & I enjoyed pumpkin pasta a lot, pumpkin soup less so.
Decorations were made from recycling and paint by DS2 and I - mainly spiders as he got a bit obsessed.
All events can be done better if you consciously decide to but you do need to make an effort. I think it's important to do as much as YOU can before you get too het up on other people's behaviour which you can't control. Each little change can make a difference, even if it's not going to change the world overnight it's better than saying sod it. It will also mean your kids grow up thinking in a better way, all these actions may even rub off on others so your small action is magnified.

As others have pointed out, probably a bit harsh to blame it on Halloween itself. Whether the spirits of the dead walk the earth on the last day of the year or not didn't make you buy tat.

It's going to be tough persuading a ten-year-old that sitting in a field listening to dad reminiscing about his nan is more positive than dressing up as Hulk and clearing the neighbourhood of funsize Twix.

Hulk. Angry. Hulk smash bread offering.

For larger items, buying second hand isn't always worth while. Many things these days aren't built to last and if the item was expensive or not easily replaceable then having the guarantee/warrantees are very useful!

For example, when we bought our house, we bought a second hand bed. It was fine for a few months but then the base/slats things kept falling out and/or breaking and we'd be woken in the middle of the night by crashing onto the floor. Bought a new bed from a shop and we did have a small issue to begin with which they came out and fixed no problem.

So I can see why people don't buy second hand big ticket items...however when it comes to Halloween decs, I've inherited some from family, we've made some excellent ones and bought very few. They all get reused year after year and costumes are passed between friends and family before being donated.

I don't think that's unusual in this day and age

[quote AngelicaElizaAndPeggy]@Samcro yes I am. I mean, we made soup from all the insides of the pumpkins and we are saving the seeds to plant next year. So I felt initially virtuous. But then felt awful when I considered all the polluting processes that went into producing and transporting the pumpkins in the first place. And it's just made me even more conscious of how trained and brainwashed I am as a consumer.[/quote]
Next year go to a local place to pick your own. It’s 5x more expensive than Tesco’s but that exactly why it’s hard to change .
Our pumpkins this year came from a charity run garden centre. £6 for a normal sized pumpkin.
That’s the reality of not buying mass / mass produced / mass transported stuff from Tesco

For larger items, buying second hand isn't always worth while.

I disagree.
I buy really good quality second hand and it lasts for years.
I have two Next sofas that were still available on the website, in pristine condition. They would have cost £2500 each, I bough them for £120 each. Still going strong 6 years later.

Don't bother with flimsy or cheaply made second hand stuff.

@sliceofcake I had this problem too, but I bought new slats which fixed it.

I spend SO much time teaching 3 year old ds about his to look after the planet etc and today we received a parcel from MIL. It contained plastic Halloween shit for ds and I just hate it all so much. It must confuse ds. Feeling sad.

[quote Chouetted]@sliceofcake I had this problem too, but I bought new slats which fixed it.[/quote]
We tried that at the time but the rail that the slats sat on was also broken and the wood (MDF) was all splintered from where it had been screwed in. Just not worth repairing!