{"id":74463,"date":"2016-10-25T10:54:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T14:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=74463"},"modified":"2016-10-24T22:18:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T02:18:37","slug":"go-green-for-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=74463","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGo Green\u201d for Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"herkimer<\/a>Halloween is upon us and it\u2019s easier than ever to go green. According to the National Retail Federation, 171 million\u00a0Americans will participate in Halloween activities this year, spending on average $82.93, up from last year\u2019s $74.34 on\u00a0costumes, decorations and candy. Total spending is expected to reach $8.4 billion, an all-time high in the history of NRF\u2019s\u00a0annual survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority offers tips to \u201cgreen\u201d your Halloween in order to benefit the environment and\u00a0your wallet,\u201d stated Jamie Tuttle, Authority Recycling Educator.<\/p>\n

Get creative with decorations. Use natural Halloween decorations like gourds, pumpkins and corn stalks \u2013 they can be composted when you\u2019re through with them! Turn recycled paper into window decorations like spiders, pumpkins or witch\u00a0hats. Paint grocery bags Halloween white for ghostly effects, or make a graveyard scene with paper tombstones and\u00a0spooky trees. After Halloween, send your paper decorations on for recycling.<\/p>\n

Make your own costume. Halloween wouldn\u2019t be the same without a costume. Skip the racks of expensive, plastic\u00a0costumes and come up with creative ideas for homemade costumes and win your costume contest! If you have no sewing\u00a0skills or anything costume-worthy in your closet, check out secondhand stores or host a costume swap with friends.<\/p>\n

Collect your treats in reusable bags. Instead of wasting money on plastic pumpkins and plastic Halloween bags, use\u00a0old pillowcases or reusable shopping bags for trick-or- treating. You can even make them festive by decorating them to\u00a0match your costume!<\/p>\n

Stay local and walk instead of drive. Stick close to home this Halloween and walk to help reduce air pollution and fuel\u00a0use. It\u2019s also a great way to connect with the neighbors and get some exercise as well!<\/p>\n

Compost your pumpkins. You can add pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks to your compost pile! If you do not compost at\u00a0home, Halloween is a great time to start. If you live in a community where green yard waste is collected, place your\u00a0pumpkins to the curb to be collected for composting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaste reduction and recycling is the easiest way to help the environment. With a little creativity and mindfulness, we can\u00a0make the holiday season less wasteful. Reducing the amount of waste we create will conserve our region\u2019s landfill space,\u00a0natural resources and energy,\u201d continued Tuttle.<\/p>\n

For more information on how to \u201cgreen\u201d your Halloween, visit the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority\u2019s\u00a0Facebook page \u2013 \u201cOneida Herkimer Solid Waste Authority\u201d. For solid waste and recycling questions or for more\u00a0information on the Authority\u2019s other programs, please visit www.ohswa.org or call 733-1224.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halloween is upon us and it\u2019s easier than ever to go green. According to the National Retail Federation, 171 million\u00a0Americans will participate in Halloween activities this year, spending on average $82.93, up from last year\u2019s $74.34 on\u00a0costumes, decorations and candy. Total spending is expected to reach $8.4 billion, an all-time high in the history of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jn1","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/unnamed-2-2.jpg?fit=256%2C77&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}