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This year, spending on Halloween is expected to reach an average of $86.13 per person, up from $82.93 last year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey on Halloween.

The Halloween spending stats

Halloween was originally a festival that marked the end of harvest, and was a time of sharing with the dead as they crossed over into the other world. It has been a way to recognize and play with death, but over the last 50 to 60 years, U.S.-based candy companies promoted the idea that trick-or-treating shouldn’t be rewarded with coins, nuts, fruit or toys, but with chocolates and other candy.

The National Retail Federation survey talked to 7,013 consumers in September about their plans for this year. It forecasts a total spend of $9.1 billion, with that spending including:

• $3.4 billion on costumes
• Of that, $440 million on pet costumes (2017 figure, Statista)
• $2.7 billion on candy
• $2.7 billion on decorations
• $410 million on greeting cards
• $300 million on haunted attractions (2016 figure)

In addition, the top 10 advertisers spent $29.2 million in 2014 on advertising for Halloween, with Walmart topping the list, spending nearly $5 million.

Beyond the spending, 48 percent of adults plan to dress up, with witches, Batman and animal costumes among the most popular choices. Superheroes were at the top of the list for children, and hot dogs and pumpkins for pets. Some 71 percent plan to hand out candy, 49 percent will decorate their home or yard, 46 percent will carve a pumpkin and 16 percent will dress pets in costumes.

Some of the most profitable categories, according to retailers, are home decor and accessories. This could be because people spend time and money on outdoing their neighbors, one participant in the 2016 survey of businesses said.

Further, the haunted house industry, according to a Statista analysis, has been “embraced by Corporate America” with millions being spent on sponsorship deals with soft drink, fast food and cell phone brands.

Other ways Halloween money could be spent

Here at The Alternative Daily, we crunched the numbers to work out how this Halloween money could have been spent:

• The money spent on costumes could send 98,209 students to college for four years each (average in-state college tuition is $34,620 for four years).
• The money spent on candy would provide 1.5 million homeless and extremely poor people with three hot meals every day for a year (Feeding The Homeless says meals cost $1.60 per person. That completely covers the total national homeless population of 564,708 people, as well as an extra 1 million people living in extreme poverty.)
• The money spent on decorations could provide at least 4.5 million women with free birth control pills for a year (the pill costs up to $600 per year).
• The money spent on greeting cards could reforest the U.S. (at an average of $100per acre to prepare the site, $70 per acre to replant or reseed, 2.4 million acres of land could be reforested. The National Forest Foundation says at least 1 million acres of land in the U.S. need reforestation).
• The money spent on haunted attractions could make condoms free for a year (450 million condoms are sold annually in the U.S., at average cost of $0.45 per condom — for a total spend of $202 million).

So, added all up, the money being spent on Halloween paraphernalia could instead put some people through college, feed the homeless, make contraception more affordable and reforest the country.

Does your Halloween costume contain toxins?

Halloween costumes are often made from plastics that contain toxins. Beyond the way money is spent, there are also issues with the way Halloween goods are produced. The Alternative Daily talked to Todd Larsen, a director with Green America, who stressed that the costumes and decorations are often made from plastics derived from petroleum “and can contain many toxins.”

“Since these costumes and decorations are often thrown away after one use, they end up in landfills, where they break down slowly, leaching toxins. Plastics also end up in waterways and harm a wide variety of wildlife,” he said.

Consumerism has consequences on your happiness

Casey Williams, a director of New Dream, an organization focused on transforming consumption habits for the wellbeing of people and planet, also talked to AD, and warned that these high spending levels and the general “accumulation of stuff” is having significant consequences for not just the environment, but also on “our own health and happiness.

“Advertising campaigns are telling us that more stuff will make us happier, smarter or more loved, even though the research suggests otherwise,” Williams said. In fact, “evidence suggests that once basic needs are met, further consumption doesn’t do much to increase happiness. It may even decrease it.”

Indeed, studies have found a direct correlation between materialism and being susceptible to mental health disorders. People who consume more also see a decrease in well-being, which includes things like sense of purpose, autonomy and good interpersonal relationships. A controlled study published in Psychological Sciencealso found that people who repeatedly see advertising that portrays them as consumers rather than citizens experience immediate increases in anxiety and depression and become more selfish.

“Consumption is the “norm” in American society… we have transitioned from a society that values savings and thrift to one that increasingly relies on debt and credit,” Williams said. She cited retail analyst Victor Lebow, who in an influential paper published as early as 1955, stated, “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing pace.”

Halloween goods are manufactured in sweatshops

Costumes and decor are made overseas in sweatshops. The manufacturing process of many Halloween goods also comes with its own price, as “costumes and décor are generally manufactured overseas in sweatshops with long hours and with workers frequently exposed to toxins. Chocolate mostly comes from cocoa farms in West Africa, where farmers are paid far less than a living wage, and many children toil on farms instead of attending school,” Larsen pointed out.

Other ways to celebrate Halloween

As Larsen noted, people are becoming increasingly pressed for time, and often aren’t able to make their own costumes or decorations. However, he suggests that where possible, it’s important that people take up the challenge to make costumes and decorations from materials around the house. It’s “an opportunity to use our creativity… and time spent with family or friends.”

“You can also work with your neighbors to create a costume swap. Everyone brings old costumes and puts them out on tables organized by age group or size. Then, people pick a new costume and go home with it for Halloween,” he suggested.

Larsen believes it’s important to aim for fair trade chocolate, which pays farmers a dignified wage, and his organization recommends this list of other green treats.

Williams and New Dream stress the importance of reusing decorations, and making them out of materials like corn husks, gourds and straw bales.

For Halloween and the upcoming holiday seasons, New Dreams is also promoting a resource called the GiveLIst, which is the opposite of a traditional registry. Here, adults and children can register their home-made creations, and make them available for others to choose from.

Finally, Global Exchange in the past has promoted the idea of reverse trick-or-treating, where children give out fair trade chocolate along with information sheets, instead of asking for candy.

How are you making Halloween meaningful?

— Tamara Pearson

The Alternative Daily shares alternative health news on stress, sleep, alternative diets with a newsletter and health eBooks.

Gary Oldham’s family had been farming cotton in Texas for over 100 years, and in 1992, his farms were officially certified organic. At the time, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) had just launched their organic certification program, and few people had even heard of organic cotton.

“I didn’t want to farm with chemicals because it was too expensive and it wore out the land. I didn’t want to raise my children around that,” Oldham says.

To help bolster Oldham’s business, the TDA offered him a list of potential clients interested in raw organic cotton. But one woman on the list asked for organic cotton T-shirts.

“I didn’t have a clue how to start making such a thing, but I said I would try,” Oldham says.

A few months later, he launched S.O.S. From Texas, selling organic cotton T-shirts and knit products cultivated from his certified-organic farm. “When you buy organic cotton, you’re supporting a lifestyle that benefits the land and prevents chemicals from entering the body. We need to leave something for the next generation,” he says. Since Oldham started his business, the organic industry has exploded, and organic cotton fibers are now used in everything from personal care items and home furnishings to children’s toys and all types of clothes.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of businesses like Oldham’s, clothing giants like Nike and Gap are starting to embrace organic cotton, meaning that it soon could catch up to the popularity levels of organic food as concerned consumers learn more about its benefits.

Whenever possible, choose organic cotton products over those made of conventional cotton. You’ll preserve the health of workers and communities; keep tons of pesticides out of our air, soil, and water; and help sustain the growing popularity of this versatile, comfortable fiber.

The Problem with Conventional Cotton

Conventional cotton farming is one of the most environmentally destructive agricultural practices—harming the air, water, soil, and farmers’ health and safety. The blame for that harm lies mainly with the huge amounts of pesticides used in conventional cotton farming. Although cotton occupies three percent of the world’s farmland, it uses more than ten percent of the pesticides, a category that includes herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants.

Pesticides are most often sprayed from the air, so they spread easily to surrounding neighborhoods. Only an estimated ten percent of this flood of chemicals actually accomplish their goal. The rest are absorbed by plants, soil, air, water, and our bodies—killing wildlife and harming ecosystems. The US Fish & Wildlife Service reports that millions of fish and birds are killed every year from the legal application of pesticides.

Pesticides can also adversely affect the health of cotton workers and those living near cotton fields. The US Environmental Protection Agency has labeled seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton as “possible,” “likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens. Other pesticide-related health problems include birth defects, long-term memory loss, headaches, nausea, or problems with the nervous system, reproductive system, and immune system. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 20,000 people die each year in developing countries as a result of the chemicals sprayed on non-organic cotton and UN estimates from 2017 reach as high as 200,000 deaths. 

Protecting People and the Planet

When it comes to cotton, the solution to the pesticide problem is to go organic. Organic cotton is grown without chemical fertilizers, defoliants, pesticides, or herbicides, and from untreated, non genetically-modified seed. Farmers rotate crops to replenish and maintain the soil’s fertility, and they control pests and weeds naturally, using insect predators, traps, or botanical pesticides that are broken down quickly by oxygen and sunlight.

As a result, organic farming is healthier and safer for farmers, fieldworkers, and nearby communities. Growing cotton organically also benefits small-scale farmers who don’t have the means to buy expensive pesticides. And organic cotton farming uses significantly less water and electric power than conventional cottonfarming techniques.

Keep in mind, however, that federal organic standards only cover the raw fiber harvesting process. Once the organic cotton fiber leaves the farm, there are no federal standards in place for further processing—so your organic cotton fabrics could be treated with harmful chlorine bleaches, heavy metal dyes, and finishers containing suspected carcinogens and other toxins.

“For the consumer, the most toxic part of clothing comes from fabric treatments. Chemicals that resist flames, water, moths, stains, soil, and wrinkles have been impregnated into the fabric and are often very hard to remove through washing,” says Annie Bond, author of Home Enlightenment. The Organic Trade Association has developed voluntary organic standards that address all stages of textile processing, including bleaching, dyeing, printing, product assembly, storage and transportation, pest management, and labeling.

Of course, choosing any kind of organic cotton products over conventional cotton keeps chemicals out of the environment and protects human health. But your best option is to buy organic cotton from companies that also avoid chemical bleaches, dyes, and finishers. When you shop for organic cotton products, ask companies whether they have organic production standards in place or have committed to the OTA’s standards.

Green businesses in particular have embraced the idea of making their organic cotton products sustainable from the farm to the store. For example, Earth Creations sells organic cotton and other natural fiber clothing made with nontoxic clay dyes and no chemical bleaches or finishers. In addition, their clothing is made in the USA by factories that are monitored for worker health and safety.

“There is a right way and a wrong way to make clothes,” says Earth Creations owner Joy Maples. “Organic benefits everyone. It feels great and looks great. And it has so many long-term benefits. It sustains the whole world, not just the US."

A Growing Industry: The Giants Jump In

Signs indicate that organic cotton is poised for major growth. Years ago, organic fibers were hard to find, but now major retailers—along with innovative green businesses—are incorporating organic cotton into their products, especially clothing.

Popular outdoor gear companies Patagonia, Timberland, and Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op have used organic cotton for years. Timberland plans for all of its cotton products to be 100 percent organic by 2011.

Following in their footsteps, clothing giants Levi’s, Gap, and Nike now use organic cotton blends in some of their products. Although their organic cotton use equals less than three percent of their total cotton use, they now represent three of the largest organic cotton purchasers in the country.

In addition, eco-chic was all the rage at FutureFashion, a special show during this year’s New York Fashion Week that featured clothes made from organic fibers. Popular designers such as Diane von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta created clothing from organic cotton, wool, and hemp.

“The natural fibers market is following in the footsteps of organic groceries,” explains Shari Keller, owner and designer of Mehera Shaw, which uses organic cotton fabrics from India. “Organic cotton is really coming into the mainstream.”

“Even people who don’t live a green lifestyle are aware of it,” agrees Maples. “It’s in their face now.” But it’s the green companies who are leading the way in terms of sustainable practices, says Denise Hamler, Green America’s director of green business programs. “Some of the most cutting-edge initiatives in design, technology, and products are coming from Green America’s Green Business Network™ members that are featured in the National Green Pages™ ,” she says. 

How You Can Boost Organic Cotton

There are many things you can do to push for more organic cotton on the market.

• Choose organic clothes: When you shop for cotton clothing for men, women, children, and babies, go organic whenever possible. Be sure to ask companies offering organic cotton if they have organic production standards in place to keep all chemicals out of their clothes. Find a list of stores in your area that sell organic cotton.
• Look for other organic cotton products: Organic cotton isn’t just for clothes. You can find organic cotton bed and crib mattresses, towels, sheets, shopping bags, stuffed toys, cloth diapers, and other items in stores and online.
• Support the greenest businesses offering organic cotton. More than 150 members of Green America's Green Business Network™ offer organic cotton clothing and other products.
• Go organic for promotional items. When you or your organization or business needs promotional items like T-shirts and bags, choose those made from organic cotton. Check the “Promotional Resources” category of our National Green Pages™, or visit the OTA Web site.
• Talk to retailers. Write letters and talk to local retailers, asking them to carry organic fiber products. If they already do, ask if they have organic production standards, as well.

“How can we not go organic?” asks Maples. “There’s shouldn’t be any other option.”