The scariest thing about Halloween is the waste!

Over the last few years it seems that Halloween has become almost as popular as Christmas - where I live some houses have been decorated since the start of the month, and supermarket shelves have been lined with Halloween goods since the end of the summer holidays. My own daughter loves a spot of trick or treating and still likes to decorate for Halloween even though she has hit those teenage years, but should we be concerned about the environmental impact of the rise in popularity of this celebration?

One of the biggest issues is costumes - most supermarket costumes will get worn one and that's it. There are a few reasons for this - most kids grow too quickly so can't wear last year's costume, some are so poorly made that after one evening of dragging their buckets of sweets up and down streets, they have fallen apart, and of course younger children are quite fickle and will want to wear something completely different anyway.

Unfortunately most Halloween costumes use non-recyclable oil-based plastics, so therefore will end up in landfill - this is the equivalent of 83 million plastic bottles! In addition, around two-thirds of costumes contain plastic polymer - which can take up to 200 to decompose fully. In the UK it is estimated that 7 million Halloween costumes are thrown away each year.

But it's not just the costumes that create lots of waste - the tradition of pumpkin carving does too. There is a bit of an unwritten rule with trick or treating that you don't visit a home unless there is a pumpkin out (as someone who never puts a pumpkin out, I am very much a fan of this rule) - but this has lead to an increase in the number of pumpkins being bought in the UK with around 40% of households buying at least one pumpkin to carve. However, over half of these households will not use the scooped out pumpkin flesh for anything else and it will be thrown straight into the bin.

There is also the threat to wildlife with discarded pumpkins. Many people think that leaving pumpkins to rot in the garden or in a local woodland is a good thing to do and will provide a food source for wildlife, however, every year wildlife charities give out the same warning that pumpkins are dangerous for hedgehogs - causing sickness, diarrhea and dehydration.

How can we make Halloween a bit more sustainable?

• Costumes - trawl the charity shops for a secondhand bargain or make something using what you already have in your wardrobe (my daughter wears mainly black - easy cat costume!)
• Pumpkins - don't buy so many, but also try to use the left-over flesh in cooking; and then put it in the compost bin afterwards
• Decorations - re-use year after year or make your own, and check that they ones you are buying can be recycled
• Sweets - buy treats that have minimal packaging or packaging that can be recycled