Fun-Sized Waste, a Halloween Unintended Consequence

breakroomcandy
As I sit here in mid-November eating clearance Halloween candy, it occurs to me how much fun-sized waste is generated on that holiday kids love.

Think about how much packaging comes in any bag of Halloween candy. Each piece must be individually wrapped for the safety of the children. The surface area of all that plastic inside the bag has got to be greater than the large bag they come inside. Part of the problem is the plastic used is mixed materials, and difficult to recycle.

It’s a complex problem, and there seems to be no simple solution. There are companies that will recycle the material, but volume is an issue. How do you get kids to save their wrappers en masse? How do you get them sorted when size is a major problem at sorting facilities?

Some candy, like Milk Duds, are packaged in cardboard. It’s a solution that works only for some candies, but if waste is a concern to you, it’s a good reason to buy the candies packaged in cardboard.

SC Johnson has a list of ideas for candy alternatives, but I have to wonder what the kids actually think of these “treats.”

What are the candy manufacturers doing to address this problem? Aside from the environmental concerns, there is also the obvious expense of all that added packaging. There’s the motivation.

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