Opinion | The real scare of Halloween

As the air cools and leaves begin to change color, college students anxiously await not Thanksgiving or apple picking at local orchards, but rather, the multi-night event of Halloween. As kids, Halloween was all about candy, scary movies and trading your two Reese’s cups and Sour Patch Kids for a full size Hershey bar. One staple of Halloween remains the same, even in college — the costumes. Students plan for weeks. They decide on individual, group and couples costumes to wear during the weekend-long event.

There is nothing wrong with planning a cute costume and enjoying a weekend out with friends after a stressful midterm season. The issue is not the display, drinking or drama but the waste that follows post-Halloween. Many students purchase one-time wear items like a blue sparkly skirt or pink boots just to complete the look. They purchase props from fake guns to costume jewelry to make the costume a total hit. While all fun in the moment, the aftermath is not very fun or cute. The photos posted to Instagram to reminisce on the night will be just as lasting as the outfits that are tossed or donated after the 2025 Halloween season.

Most costumes perpetuate a devastating trash flow and “one time use” motto that sends most parts of any costume straight to the dump. Since these pieces used in costumes often lack reusability and daily wearability, they typically originate from fast fashion retailers like Shein, Temu and Amazon, where clothes are cheap and offer wide varieties. If they come from a more sustainable source like a local thrift store, they may still end up rotting in a closet. With regular clothing now being worn only seven to 10 times before being tossed, Halloween and costumes only add to this number.

People generally recognize the terror that is fast fashion from environmental harm to child labor and poor work conditions, but this does not stop them from shopping there when the short-term benefit outweighs the long-term cost. Only 10% of people say they have not purchased from fast fashion companies, and studies show that 67% of people are familiar with fast fashion. Even with efforts from sustainable options, Gen Z college students, who praise sustainability, still fall into the fast fashion trap. In 2022, Americans spent $1.4 billion on their costumes with 85% ending in textile dumps. The Halloween holiday drives billions in confectionary sales and decorations to make a singular day outrageously special.

Since most college students don’t spend much on candy or decorations, their main economic and environmental impact comes from their costumes. From “Men in Black” to “Barbie” to “Strawberry Shortcake,” costumes are becoming more extravagant and costly. Considering college students are balling on a budget year-round, costumes cannot break the bank. With Target and Spirit Halloween out of the question, both a part of the fast fashion industry, resorting to Shein for a quick outfit made to only look good in pictures is too common.

Regardless of your opinion on fast fashion, everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy new clothes — or costumes — they feel confident in. The main issue that stems from this purchase history is the constant waste. The one-time wear, plastic-filled costumes will take 200 Halloween nights to decompose.

Those who want to avoid the draw of fast fashion but need to remain on a budget have the option to thrift items — if they’re lucky to find a pink shirt or neon yellow jacket hiding in the racks. Thrifting, while a very fun Saturday afternoon activity, is extremely stressful when searching for anything specific. Thrifting pieces for either a classic witch costume or something new and hip like Eleven from “Stranger Things” eliminates the impacts of fast fashion from cruel work conditions and child labor, but it still contributes to extreme waste and environmental impacts that follow the spooky, candy-filled day. With only 10% to 30% of donations at thrift stores ending up on the racks, thrifting obscure or even pieces not fit for daily wear still leads to a major issue — what will you do with them after Halloween?

Just like with fast fashion, thrifting  leads to an issue of post-holiday conflicts as most people cannot wear a nurse’s costume to their chemistry lecture. Even if pieces from Halloweens past sit in your closet for a year, eventually the stage of decluttering comes around. It is either toss or donate. 

With Halloween only a few short weeks away, the goal of this article is not to send shivers down your spine but to help you realize the waste so easily created in the spirit of Halloween. Find ways beyond the trash and donation to give your costume pieces a second life. By recycling to friends to selling on Facebook Marketplace to attempting to reuse pieces in the following year’s Halloween, overconsumption and waste can be reduced. Think about all the endless options you can piece together from your own wardrobe or a friend’s closet. There is no shame in rewearing or getting a little creative. Halloween is all about having fun and creating a costume that is out of the ordinary. The pressure that surrounds Halloween and costume selection should not be exacerbated by purchasing low-quality pieces or scouring the internet for a perfect fit, as so often, the right piece is already in your closet. 

The spirit of Halloween should not be lost in the waste and overconsumption so many people ignore in the spirit of a perfect costume. Remember to make smart choices and enjoy the holiday regardless of what costume you rock. 

Sierra O’Neil is a junior marketing major who loves long walks, overpriced coffee and overanalyzing social media ads. A Pittsburgh native, she is always looking for different places to explore and companies to hire her as their new intern. Connect with Sierra by emailing her at sgo10@pitt.edu.