Halloween is great fun for families, but it's one of those times of the year when, as parents, we're acutely aware of our waste. To help people save a bit of money and reduce their Halloween waste this year, I'm teaming up with Councillor Maria Dollard to hold a Halloween Costume Swap Party on October 13th from 2pm to 6pm at St. Canice's Neighbourhood Hall on Butts Green (Eircode R95 VK7X).
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 our 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 costume swaps are great fun for kids. To see what it’s all about, come along to St. Canice's Hall on Sunday October 13th. 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 St. Canice's Hall on Friday October 11th from 2pm to 5pm. You can also drop them to my constituency office from Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm on the week of the swap. Any leftover costumes will be donated to local charity shops, so there'll be a further chance for them to find a new home!
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