Go green this Halloween

Herefordshire Council's waste prevention team is encouraging people this Halloween to recycle and avoid a horror story for the environment.

The council is offering green fingered advise about how to reduce the amount of waste that occurs every year at Halloween parties. For example, it's a scary fact that up to 99 per cent of ghoulish pumpkin lanterns will end up in landfill sites.

There are numerous ways to avoid this from happening such as composting or making soup with the pumpkin.

Catherine Hines, Worcestershire County Council' s waste prevention project assistant, said: "There are lots of ways people can make their parties greener, whether its using their own crockery and cutlery rather than paper plates and plastic knives and forks, buying loose fruit and vegetables with less packaging or remembering to recycle those empty bottles and cans. Careful planning can reduce the waste produced."

There are a number of ways that Halloween parties across the county can go green this year. Below are a few tricks "witch" will help treat the environment:

Before the party

• Plan ahead before buying food and confirm numbers for the party. This avoids over spending and food waste.
• Residents can buy fruit and vegetables that are loose and not pre-packed and purchase freezer packs of bread rolls to re-use at a later date.
• Party-goers can limit the number of items that are thrown away by buying Halloween costumes and decorations that are re-usable

At the party

• Party revellers could use everyday cutlery and crockery rather than paper plates and plastic knives and forks
• The party host could use a glass hire service from a local off-licence or supermarket instead of plastic cups, and top up salad and bread baskets throughout the evening to reduce food wastage.

After the party

• Involve all the party guests with the washing up and keep re-seal able food containers for next time year
• Save Halloween costumes for next year or offer them for free to others on http://www.freecycle.org/
• Remember to recycle all your plastic bottles, cans, paper, thin card, glass bottles and jars and put any vegetable waste in to a compost bin
• Other food waste (bread, meat and dairy) can be put down a food waste disposer. For more information about how you can claim cash back for fitting a food waste disposer visit http://www.sinkyourwaste.com/

For more information about composting at home log on to www.recyclenow.com/compost or call 0845 077 0757 or for information about reducing, reusing and recycling waste visit http://www.wastemissionimpossible.org.uk/ or call 01905 766883.