Eco-Friendly Fall Decor
Painted leaves by artist Victoria Strukovskaya.
Fall is in full swing, and pumpkins and spooky things abound! It can be great family fun or a nice ritual to decorate your home to ring in the new season.
Here are some tips for having fun while keeping it eco-friendly.
- Dust it off: Those old decorations in your attic? Your mom’s storage bin from your childhood in the basement? The most eco-friendly option is always using what you already own! No matter the material, these objects already exist and reduce the resource demand involved in creating new objects – even eco-friendly ones.
- Thrift it up: An extension of the first idea, buying decor second-hand ensures that beautiful objects continue to get used and loved rather than sent to the landfill...and the cost savings aren’t a bad thing either! For costumes, we love ThredUp, Etsy, eBay, DePop and Poshmark. For decor, we like Facebook Marketplace, Etsy and eBay. But of course, the most thrilling hunt is at the local thrift store.
- Paint nature with nature: Use some biodegradable, plant-based paints by Natural Earth Paint to decorate the fall leaves you collect from your yard! We love the designs in the above photo by artist Victoria Strukovskaya.
- Pumpkins...sort of: Of course, pumpkins and gourds are biodegradable, but there’s a catch... Every year, Americans send 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins to the landfill1. The lack of oxygen in the landfill means the pumpkins produce methane gas as they decompose. So, when you are done decorating with your pumpkin, be sure to harvest the seeds for eating and then compost the rest. Alternately, it is safe to cut up and feed to local wildlife!
- Kraft paper crafts: Get the kids involved with this fun fall activity! Take some used paper grocery bags and cut them up into fall leaves. We love this beautiful paper leaf garland by Tatertots and Jello.
1 Source: Waste Advantage Magazine