Thread: Eco-friendly haunting

Tweet

I know a lot of haunters probably don't want to hear it, but I'd venture to say that a lot of yard haunts aren't particularly easy on the environment (let alone the wallet)--using a fair amount plastic, foam, PVC, and, of course, megawatts of energy to run everything.

I am looking for ways to make my yard haunt with less impact on the environment and I want to hear any good "green" ideas that you've incorporated into your haunts. (Carving a jack-o-lantern of Al Gore doesn't count (unless you plan to compost it later), and running your haunt completely off of solar panels, while innovative, isn't practical for most of us.)

For prop materials, of course, the best way is to recycle and re-use anything and everything from your garage, the local dumpster, and even your neighbor's trash (I admit I've done it once or twice).

Also, using LED lights instead of incandescent floodlights uses less energy and can save you money over the long term.

What else?

Haunter - sorry I have no ideas. I would say this-what you've put is quite accurate. I'd venture to say that home haunters have saved quite a bit of trash from the landfill, including dumpster diving, curbside grabbing, reusing what we have and yard sales/thrift stores, etc. No one finds a cheap bargain like a haunter!! Nice topic.

Haunter,

I applauded your effort or idea to go green but since Halloween is just one night a year it seems rather implausible if not abused to go to the length of solar panels and such. There are ways to save money on your haunt as Pandora pointed out so well. By recycling material to make props and such you not only save money but also your goal in saving energy. Haunts don’t have to be large, complex, affairs that gobble up energy to be frightening effective. Some of the best haunts I have seen have been those that are creative and are simple in their presentation.

id say first turn off your pc,,it wastes energy.............................

I will fully admit to trash scavenging and dumpster diving. Construction roll-off dumpsters are my favorite. Nearly everything in there is new. And free!

While I'm not looking to run my haunt "off the grid," I am concerned about using too much electricity to light my display for 20+ days and using new rather than recycled materials. I like Spookzilla's idea of keeping the display simple and not going overboard (especially with a lot of store-bought items).

SparklyJ, what are the "rules" for rolloff dumpster scavenging? Is it best to ask first before plundering? Or do you discretely do it after hours?

I agree with spookzilla. For most of us, it's a one night affair and in the big scheme of things the power/resources used are neglible compared to many other things, like X-mas displays that run for a month or better. Even an elaborate set-up that employs multiple lighting schemes, foggers, sound systems, etc..is really not having that great an impact. I'm in agreement with using as much salvageable material as possible, but see nothing wrong with purchasing new material to make a good prop that you can get several years use out of.

I don't have much to offer on this as my haunt, like a lot of others is a one night deal. Well, 2 nights this year.

But most of my lighting in the cemetery is done with battery powered LED spotlights. In order to make such and idea greener, you could use rechargable batteries alone or rig them to small solar panels to recharge during the day.

As for foggers and sound, I don't really see a way around it except using less and runing the haunt for shorter periods of time.

Though I must say home haunters are among the best recyclers I know. We can find all kinds of uses for stuff that would otherwise end up as trash.

Our pumpkins always get composted.

We don't run the lights/effects ALL night, just for about 3 hours after it gets dark, and only in the week or so leading up to the big night.

All of our props are reuseable - I even reuse the webbing that gets nasty from being outside all month along our graveyard fencing as topping. It actually looks better the nastier it gets.

Trash diving is the best kind of recycling. If it's a house, then I'd think it would be more proper to ask them if they'd mind if you took something, and I'd ask a business if the dumpster obviously belongs to them, but I've been known to wait until the wee hours the night before a trash day to yank something off the curb.

I thought I would share this nice summary on the art of scrounging.
http://spookineering.com/scrounging.html