Instead of spending October feeling anxious about Halloween waste I decided to do something to try to curtail it a bit, so on October 14th from 4 to 7pm you can join me at the Evergreen Hall in Terenure for the inaugural Halloween Costume Swap Party, in aid of Trick or Treat for Sick Children.
Textile waste is something many of us don’t give much thought to, but it’s a big (and growing) environmental problem, both for us here in Ireland and for the countries we export all that waste to. While the one-off purchases of Halloween costumes might be a drop in the textile waste ocean, they are particularly high in plastic fibres, and the fact that they often aren’t worn more than once makes them especially wasteful.
But how can you deny your child the fun and excitement of dressing up for Halloween? Well, the answer is you don’t have to! Many households are sitting on year after year of unwanted, barely worn Halloween costumes, so instead of buying something new, why not swap them for something that’s ‘new to you’?
Clothes swaps are becoming all the rage as people seek more sustainable ways to consume, and Dublin City Council even has a clothes swap kit you can borrow if you want to organise your own swap for friends, family and neighbours. To see what it’s all about, come along to the Evergreen Hall on Saturday October 14th. Just bring any unwanted but clean, fun and fabulous costumes, masks or accessories and exchange them for swap tokens, and when you find a costume you want to take we’ll exchange it for a token.
Even if you don’t want to swap, you might want to off-load some unwanted costumes your kids have outgrown, and we’ll take those too – on the day or you can drop them off at the Evergreen Hall on Friday October 13th from 3pm to 6pm. We’ll make sure any surplus costumes find their way to a good home, and will be linking in with migrant support groups and homeless hubs to share the fun of Halloween far and wide. Admission to the clothes swap is free, but all donations to the Children’s Health Foundation’s Trick or Treat for Sick Children will be gratefully received.
Hope to see you there! I’ll be the one in the witches hat.
Reduce waste, save money
Have a more sustainable Halloween!
Textile waste is scary
So how does the clothes swap work?
