Students push for eco-friendly Halloween
During the season of Halloween, people spend time searching for their costume and those costumes might only be used once. Recently three organizations at Cal Poly collaborated to help cut down the waste that single-use costumes create.
On Oct. 17, Thrift Cal Poly, The Sustainable Fashion Club and Her Campus Cal Poly teamed up to host a Halloween swap and shop. This event gave students the opportunity to bring in old clothes that they didn’t wear anymore and exchange it for other used clothing.
Environmental management and protection senior Jordan Langley is the president of The Sustainable Fashion Club at Cal Poly.
“The whole reason we’re doing this especially during the Halloween season is because there are so many fast fashion halloween costumes that people buy and it’s really not sustainable, a lot of them are made with harmful materials and they’re very much only used one time,” Langley said. “But, if you are able to thrift or swap your Halloween costume, that is so much more sustainable.”
Journalism senior Eve Stewart is the president for Thrift Cal Poly. She shared some essential tips on how to be mindful of the environment when finding Halloween costumes and celebrating the holiday.
“Buying second hand is a huge, huge part of it. It’s a really easy way to be sustainable during halloween. Also, doing your best to buy costumes that are made with sustainable materials, so avoid materials with polyester,” Stewart said.
Stewart also encourages people to research where they are buying their costumes from. Factors that people can look into is how sustainable the clothes being created are, like if cheap labor is used or if the clothing is handmade.
People can also create costumes with the clothing that is in their closet as a way to avoid creating more waste. But, if a costume requires other clothing they don’t own, Stewart says to try and look for clothing that they can continue to use in the future.
The Sustainable Fashion Club hosts swap and shop events every third Thursday of the month on Dexter Lawn from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
