Halloween Waste
As the days draw darker and a chill creeps into the air, homes and businesses around the world prepare for Halloween. The fun yet frightening celebration at the end of October has a seriously scary side though – the amount of Halloween waste the holiday produces. From mountains of discarded pumpkins to millions of costumes chucked away, it’s a petrifying problem.
Thankfully, awareness is growing and there are many great Halloween recycling ideas and sustainable options to have a low or zero waste Halloween. Read our guides to discover some truly terrifying Halloween waste facts and find ways you can have an environmentally friendly Halloween in your home or business this year.
Halloween waste facts and statistics
Halloween waste statistics change each year, as more people and businesses are becoming aware of the need to cut down on the waste they produce. They also vary across the world, as the US and UK invest much more in the haunted holiday than some other countries.
However, there are still plenty of frightening Halloween waste facts and stats out there:
- Hubbub estimates a petrifying 22 million pumpkins are thrown away in the UK each Halloween, equivalent to £32 million of food waste.
- 18,000 tons of pumpkin waste are produced, with only one in nine people cooking theirs (Hubbub).
- WRAP warned in October 2025 that millions of pumpkins purchased for Halloween in the UK were likely to go uneaten.
- A NRF consumer survey uncovered that 42% of Americans were planning to carve pumpkins for Halloween in 2026.
- When pumpkins end up in landfill, they decompose and release methane, which is a greenhouse gas 20 times more harmful to the Earth’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
- The average trick-or-treater creates about 450g of waste (Geographical). This mostly consists of plastic and packaging from sweet wrappers that aren’t normally recyclable.
- Seven million Halloween costumes are binned after Halloween. Frighteningly, four in ten people only wear theirs once (Geographical).
- Of all these Halloween costumes, about 63% contain polyester, which takes up to 200 years to decompose (Geographical).
- 83% of Halloween costumes contain non-recyclable oil-based plastics, which means they end up in landfill or are incinerated (BBC).
- Halloween costumes create around 2,000 tons of plastic waste every year (Geographical), roughly equivalent to the weight of 300 elephants.
- In the USA, a horrifying four million kilograms of textile waste are created at Halloween with costumes thrown away (Hubbub).
- UK shoppers were expected to spend £537 million on Halloween in 2025, with rising food and drink prices contributing to the increase (GlobalData).
- However, a 2025 YouGov survey found that 55% of British Halloween celebrators spend less than £25 on the holiday.
- Americans are expected to spend $4.1 billion on Halloween sweets (candy) in 2026 (Fox).
- Total Halloween spending in the US is expected to hit a record-high $13.5 billion in 2026 (NRF).
Halloween waste guides
Explore more facts and statistics about Halloween waste, Halloween recycling ideas, and ways to help your household or business reduce the rubbish you produce this spooky season with our detailed guides.
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Published 27th October 2022 by Mark Hall. Last modified 13th October 2026