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.

@speakout

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.

I didn't say it was never worthwhile...I do have some second hand things which are still going strong years later including a Dyson I've had for 5 years and that had at least one previous owner.

I do agree that you need to buy good quality second hand items, but you can't always guarantee that they are genuine or in as good a condition as they would be store bought (ie if something inside was broken which you couldn't see and wasn't immediately obvious when you first tried to use it).

Why are you still buying into it then? You have a choice, stop moaning and do something about it for yourself. People are such sheep and worried what others will think of them if they choose not to conform to the popular and socially-acceptable ways of life.

We use the same decorations every year and also include pine cones and conkers etc for autumn decos.
We didn't do pumpkins this year but when we do my mum usually manages to cook or bake something out of them ( I'm useless at that).
My kids had face paint and we sometimes get a Halloween outfit that can later be worn as pjs ( Asda do a basic skeleton long sleeve top and leggings for e.g) or an outfit that would also work for world book day or another costume day. I appreciate not everyone would want to do this but I dont have much money to spend on stuff like that.

@Notjustanymum, real Christmas trees are a crop like any other, and such fast growing trees use up a great deal of CO2.
More will always be planted in their place.

@BelleOfTheProvince

You can get pureed pumpkin pretty easily in the UK. Most supermarkets sell it, usually with the baking stuff.

I get rage at the plastic stuff in the sweet shop. A “sweet spray” - basically a plastic spray bottle which dispenses water and artificial sweetener as a gimmick. A sweet roll on does the same like a deodorant but on your tongue. Nuclear-looking drinks in plastic bottles and plastic fake banana sweets. None of this shite counts as food. It should all be banned

[quote Polmuggle]@BelleOfTheProvince

You can get pureed pumpkin pretty easily in the UK. Most supermarkets sell it, usually with the baking stuff.[/quote]
Ah ok. I avoid the baking section at the moment but used to frequent it before I got fat. Will have to look out for it.

I haven't read every reply, but as others have said, you don't need to buy all the plastic tat and costumes. We have decorations, but they are put away and reused each year. We also use our pumpkins for pumpkin soup and a few other recipes, even the seeds can be kept and eaten (they're nice toasted).