6+ Eco-Friendly and Low-Waste Halloween Treats
This post first appeared in our weekly Make Waves Mondays email series on October 24, 2022, and was updated and re-shared again on October 19, 2026.
Hello hello friend!
I cannot believe that Halloween is next week… Like truly, where has this year gone????And, of course, with Halloween comes Halloween candy! If you’ve got kids or live in an area where Trick-or-Treating is ~the thing to do~, you’ve probably started thinking about which candies you’re gonna be handing out this year.
And since you’re here, reading this, I think it’s probably pretty safe to assume that you want to make sure that the treats you’re handing out aren’t causing harm to people or the planet.
You may even be dreading walking down the plastic-littered streets next Sunday, and really don’t want to add to that mess.
So today, we’re talking all things eco-friendly Halloween candy! 🍬🍫 Why it’s important, what to look for, and some brands committed to doing good throughout their entire supply chain.
Let’s dive in 👇
Why choose sustainable Halloween candy?
It’s stupid easy to pop over to the grocery store, grab a pre-mixed plastic bag of bite-sized candies, ready to simply dump into a bowl and hand out to the local trick-or-treaters. So why bother going through the effort of choosing more sustainable and ethical candy options?
Well.
Did you know that in 2022, Americans purchased a whopping 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween? That’s nearly two pounds of candy for every person in the United States…all for one night of the year 😳
And all that candy comes with some real frights…
We can assume that essentially every single piece of candy that makes up the 600 million pounds is individually wrapped in some capacity. Whether that’s a plastic wrapper, some aluminum foil, or a cardboard box — that’s a whole heck of a lot of waste! One article even estimated that more than 100,000 tons of candy wrappers are disposed of around Halloween just in the United States. Sure, a small portion may get recycled, but the vast majority is going to end up in a landfill, or worse, littering our streets, our waterways, and our oceans.
And beyond the obvious, visible trash from all that candy, there are also very real conservation implications and ethical concerns with a lot of Halloween treats.
Chocolate and Halloween just kinda go hand-in-hand, but cocoa farming has a long history of deforestation and dangerous working conditions — including child and forced labor. I’ve shared the Last Week Tonight segment on chocolate before on the blog, but if you haven’t seen it, John Oliver does an exceptional job covering the ethical and environmental implications of the chocolate industry and I highly recommend giving it a watch.
And the same can also be said of palm oil. We’re losing hundreds of thousands of acres of rain forests every year across the globe to produce palm oil, which is found in almost everything we consume on a daily basis.
So if we have better options available to us, why not choose those instead?
What should you look for when choosing eco-friendly Halloween candy?
Of course, like anything sustainability-related, there aren’t any one-size-fits-all solutions, and no one brand or product is going to check every single box on our sustainability checklist, but there are definitely some things to look out for!
Low-Waste Packaging
When it comes to packaging, look for candies packaged in paper or cardboard if possible.
Foil is also better than plastic, though be sure to check your local recycling guidelines for whether or not it’s actually accepted for recycling where you live before tossing your aluminum foil wrappers in your recycling bin!
If you’re in Tacoma, aluminum foil in any form (including things like Chipotle bowl lids) are not accepted for recycling. The foil melts at a different temperature than aluminum cans, so the foil simply turns to ash in the recycling process.
And if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with access to bulk bins, check out what’s available! You may be able to find some foil-wrapped chocolates or paper-wrapped candies like Starbursts, Now and Laters, or Tootsie Rolls.
My local Winco has SO MUCH BULK CANDY this time of year. My husband and I always feel like kids let loose in a candy store every Halloween. We don’t get trick-or-treaters, but boy do we love some Halloween candy 😋
Third-Party Certifications
Beyond the packaging, look for treats with third-party certifications like…
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Fair Trade, which ensures safe working conditions, sustainable livelihoods, environmental protections, and transparency throughout the supply chain.
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Direct Trade, which is similar to Fair Trade, but cuts out the middleman, so the company making the product works directly with farmers for their ingredients.
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USDA Organic, which means no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers are used.
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Non-GMO, which means none of the ingredients are genetically modified.
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B Corp, which means the company’s entire supply chain has been audited for social and environmental responsibility.
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Rainforest Alliance, which is mostly used for things like chocolate, coffee, tea, and other globally-traded crops, and ensures ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, better livelihoods for the farmers, and safeguards to protect the rights and wellbeing of the local communities.
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Vegan, which means that there are no animal products used, such as gelatin, which is often found in conventional gummy candies.
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FSC-Certified, which means that any paper or cardboard used in the packaging is from responsibly-managed forests and protects local communities and workers’ rights.
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RSPO-Certified, which means that any palm oil used is sustainably-sourced (including good working conditions and ethical business practices, no deforestation, and sustainable livelihoods).
Sustainable Palm Oil
On the note of RSPO certification, every year Cheyenne Mountain Zoo publishes their list of Orangutan-Friendly Halloween Treats. These are the most popular candy brands that are members of the RSPO and use certified sustainable palm oil in their products.
If you’re going the traditional candy route, this is THE guide to use 🦧
Support local candy shops!
If you have a local candy shop in your community, check them out first! Your local chocolatier is more likely to use better ingredients and less packaging, and give back to your direct community. Plus, shopping local is always a win 🥰
Shout-out to Johnson Candy Company here in Tacoma!
Check out these ethical and sustainable Halloween candy brands 🍬
In full transparency, I have not tried most of these brands personally! And I’m in zero ways affiliated with them. But based on what we’ve been able to find from other sustainable blogs and the companies’ websites, I’m a fan of these!
Alter Eco
Alter Eco chocolates are fair trade, organic, gluten-free, B-corp, and climate label certified (yes — all of those!), and are packaged in certified backyard compostable packaging.
They’re a bit on the spendy side, but if you live in an area that doesn’t get a ton of trick-or-treaters, their truffles may be a great option for you!
Or maybe you send the kids off with something a little less decadent and save the truffles for a quiet night in afterwards with a glass of petite syrah in hand 😉
Taza
Taza is a Massachusetts-based chocolate company that uses direct trade cacao and a stone grinding process to create a gritty, rustic-style chocolate that’s also certified organic, non-GMO, palm oil free, gluten-free, dairy free, and vegan.
These are also a bit spendier, but boy oh boy am I eyeing SO MANY of their chocolate bars 😍
Tony’s Chocolonely
Tony’s Chocolonely’s entire mission is to end exploitation in the chocolate industry. They’re not just doing everything they can to eliminate child labor in their own products; they’re actively trying to raise awareness amongst the general public about the problems in the chocolate industry and inspire other brands to step up and do better, too.
And WOW are they transparent! There is SO MUCH information on their website about their business practices, their sourcing policies, their advocacy work, and more. You know we’re big big fans of transparency around here, and Tony’s level of transparency is an example every business should aspire to.
Their chocolate is also palm oil free and packaged in an FSC-certified paper wrapper.
Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange works with over 40 farmer cooperatives that are democratically organized and share decision-making and resources among their members for their ingredients, and they’re also structured as a co-op themselves. According to their website, “each worker gets one vote, has access to shared financial information, and invests an equal share in the business.” They also have a 5:1 top-to-bottom pay ratio and profit distribution.
Their fair trade, organic chocolate minis would be excellent for Halloween trick-or-treaters!
Unreal
Unreal’s Halloween Dark Chocolate Variety Pack is basically the better version of Reese’s peanut butter cups, Almond Joys, and Mounds. They’re certified fair trade, gluten free, and non-GMO, with zero artificial dyes or sweeteners, no palm oil, and mostly organic ingredients.
I can’t find much info about their back-end business practices, but their ingredients are wayyyy better than the conventional alternatives!
It does look like if you order earlier in the Halloween season, you can also get boxes of each of these on their own, but right now only the variety pack and chocolate coconut bars are left in stock for trick-or-treating.
Pure Organic
Okay I just tried some Pure Organic fruit bars recently and they are YUMMY. They’re also certified organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and vegan. They’re packaged in plastic, but if you’re looking for a better alternative to gummy candies this Halloween, these are the ones I’d go with.
Maybe some natural sugars instead?
If none of the above options are striking your fancy, what about some fresh fruit instead?
I love the idea of drawing faces on some cuties to look like little jack-o-lanterns! 🎃
I remember as a kid there was an apple orchard near my hometown that always separated tiny apples from the full-grown apples. Maybe there’s an orchard near you that does something similar so you can stock up on tiny, fresh apples? You can make a day of it! Grab the fam, don your coziest of fall sweaters, and head to an orchard to do some apple picking!
Non-Edible Halloween Treats
Of course, there’s always the non-edible route as well! Things like erasers, pencils, stickers, temporary tattoos, rocks and gems…there are so many possibilities!
But… I will say, I remember the year my family decided to give out pencils and erasers instead of candy, and those Halloween-themed pencils lived in our storage room for yearssss later.
I do love me a good pencil, but be prepared to end up with a hundred extra pencils that you’re gonna keep handing out year after year and trying to convince kids hopped up on sugar that they should choose a pencil instead of Skittles 😅
So in summary…
Halloween comes with a heck of a lot of waste, and even more questionable (to say the least) practices going on behind-the-scenes to get chocolate from farmers to your candy bowl. So if you’re celebrating Halloween this year, and planning to hand out candy to your local neighborhood kids dressed in their best Spiderman and ghost costumes, see if there are some better candy options than the usual Nestle variety pack from Target!
Now I really wanna know, friend... What are you doing for Halloween this year??
A few years ago I discovered that I could pull together an entire pirate costume with things I already had in my closet, and now it’s my go-to costume every year. I’m basically Ron Swanson 😂 (Plus a few new accessories I got from someone on Facebook Marketplace last year!!)
I’m excited to celebrate this year in costume with my husband doing a whiskey tasting at the aquarium! Because what’s better than pirates, sharks, and whiskey cocktails with my favorite person on the planet??
So do me a favor and comment below and tell me all about your Halloween plans! I wanna hear how you’re celebrating!
Related:
Eco-Friendly Holidays blog posts
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