There’s a reason this is called eco-friendly treats and not ‘Zero Waste Treats for Trick or Treaters.’
The most zero waste treat you could give is one made from scratch like cookies or cupcakes, but unless you personally know everyone coming to your door, or you’re handing treats out at a party or church group full of people you know… you’re going to have to choose packaged snacks for safety.
From what I’ve heard, most trick or treaters have to throw out non-packaged snacks ASAP. So being defiant and making non-packaged snacks will just lead to food waste.
So, I’ve rounded up several eco-friendly Halloween treats for trick or treaters that have reduced packaging!
I’m trying to offer a variety of options. A lot of the lists I’ve seen include $5 chocolate bars, and while I would love to be on the receiving end of a $5 chocolate bar, I’m not sure how practical that is if you have a 100 kids show up at your door on Halloween.
So, I will be including some higher end options, lower end options, candy options, and non-candy options. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find a good mix.
Or you could always do what my husband and I do… we don’t have children and just go out to dinner. By the time we get back home we’ve missed the Trick or Treater rush.
I will also say, we didn’t live in a super family oriented neighborhood. We also lived on a busy street, so it wasn’t ideal Trick or Treat territory.
However, this is the first year that we’re living in a family friendly neighborhood, so I think we might have trick or treaters on a scale that we’ve never seen before!
And, I’m pretty excited!!
I will probably be picking my candy up from Rainbow Grocery. If you’re in the Bay Area, they have individually foil wrapped candies available for purchase from the bulk bins.
The foil surrounding foil candies is aluminum foil and it is recyclable!
But, once the candy leaves your house, you really don’t have control over how it’s disposed of so we just have to hope they recycling that foil the right way. Check out this post for more information on how to recycle aluminum foil and other metals.
I have done my best to research what does and doesn’t come in plastic, but I’m going purely off of assumption. Some, of the links will be affiliate links for more information please see my disclosure policy.
eco-friendly, zero waste Halloween treats:
Simply Gum - Simply Gum is vegan and it looks like it only comes in a cardboard box. I’m not sure how the set is packaged. I’d hope they'd be loose or come in a larger box? However, it’s pretty pricey at 2.34 per serving.
Halloween Erasers - These probably come in a giant plastic bag, but they’re inexpensive at .09 cents a piece, and I remember LOVING these erasers as a kid! My hope here would be that it’s something useful, and isn’t just creating more waste in the long run.
Box of Candy - I have seen several companies sell small boxes of their candy in boxes. Imagine that! Around 30 ish cents per serving.
It would be pretty sweet if all candy companies did this instead of plastic wrappers. I’ve found Junior Mints, Milk Duds, and a pack of chocolate wrapped in foil. The pack wrapped in foil says it might be packed with an ice pack due to weather?
Temporary Tattoos - I’ve done a bit of research into the inks for temporary tattoos and I believe they’re totally safe to be washed down the drain? It appears a lot of them use vegetable based dyes.
The information wasn’t overwhelmingly clear. You’ll also have the plastic backing paper left with this, but I still think it’s less waste than a sticker. And, I think kids would be really into it. They also only cost around .09 cents each.
Pencils - Yeah it’s boring, but at least kids could use them! I’ve opted for the non-themed ones because, those typically break and the patterns on them are thin layers of plastic. And, this massive box of pencils comes out to around .09 cents each.
Alter Eco - Alter Eco makes fair trade chocolates with compostable wrappers. They sell bulk packages in a 60 count without any plastic, but they are a little spendy at .91 cents each.
Fair Trade Chocolate Bars - I believe this chocolate is wrapped in paper? But, I really couldn’t tell. I also don’t know how they ship it whether it’s in plastic or not, but it’s a pretty good deal for individually wrapped fair trade chocolate at around 0.25 cents a bar.
Foil Wrapped Chocolates - I think this is the same candy as the ones photographed above at Rainbow Grocery. They’re individually wrapped chocolate balls in foil and even though they’re not fair trade, this is what they have to say about the company who makes them.
‘Thompsons chocolate ingredient supplier has a Sustainable Origins program focusing on People, Planet, and Profit. You can visit http://www.blommer.com/csr_sustainability.html to learn more.”
Fruit - I still like the idea of handing out fruit like cuties that are obviously “sealed” so to speak. I think it’s so cute when people draw little jack-o-lanterns on the the skin!
Canned Drinks - Aluminum is one of the most recyclable metals, so why not hand out soda or another type of canned beverage? I would probably hand out canned tea or lemonade.
Those are all of the eco-friendly halloween treats that I can think of! Let me know if there’s anything that you’d add in the comments down below.
Also don’t forget to check out my other Halloween posts like throwing a zero waste halloween party and six eco-friendly, zero waste costumes you probably already have in your closet.
I’m planning on throwing a Halloween party this year, and I’m super excited to keep you uptodate! To make sure you don’t miss anything, be sure to follow me on Instagram.
