Environmental charity Clean Cornwall is urging buyers not to indulge in plastic purchases this Halloween.
Its new campaign. Boo To Plastic, aims to highlight the issue of overconsumption and producing unnecessary plastic waste, acknowledging both the responsibility of manufacturers and consumers to focus on sustainable alternatives.
Clean Cornwall has been providing Cornwall with accessible litter picking services, environmental campaigns and free educational resources for more than 15 years.
Surveys conducted by Fairyland Trust and Hubbub in 2019 revealed that 83% of Halloween costumes sold online are made from oil-based plastics, which are very rarely recycled.
Previous research by Hubbub also revealed that 7 million Halloween costumes are disposed of annually, and that over 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in the UK each year by Halloween costumes alone.
Halloween decorations are equally at fault. The faux cobwebs sold at this time of year are most commonly made from polyester - an oil-based plastic – and have been found embedded in wild bird nests in countries around the world, closely mimicking the natural nesting materials that many species of birds rely on and fatal if ingested or entangled.
Clean Cornwall project coordinator Jade Jackson said: “We 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 November 1.
"From individually wrapped sweets to costumes you will never wear again, the whole Halloween holiday is plagued by single-use products.
“I’m sure we will see a big rise in litter just after Halloween, and we’re pre-emptively 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.
The campaign will take place across several social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #bootoplastic. Alternatively visit www.cleancornwall.org