Perhaps the worst part of Halloween is the aftermath: kids with tummy aches, teens and squirrels destroying your pumpkins, and mounds of miniature candy wrappers piling up all over the house. And it feel crappy to toss them all in the trash, too.
Well, candy company Mars is out to solve at least one of those problems. The sweet behemoth has announced its annual Trick Or Trash initiative, which is in its fourth year and which seem to be gaining momentum with each passing Halloween. This year, the program has added trick or treat bags that double as a way to recycle spooky waste.
Here’s how it works:
You request a trick or treat bag from the Mars website and they mail it to you for free. You collect your candy in the bag and then use it to store any and all candy wrappers you and your family collect during your candy massacre. Then you seal up the bag and mail it to a recycling facility using your prepaid label, and boom, you’re done!
“This year, our Halloween leadership highlights Mars’ commitment to a healthy planet by providing a simple way to minimize packaging waste with the Mars and Rubicon Trick or Trash bags,” Tim LeBel, Chief Halloween Officer and President of Sales at Mars Wrigley stated in a press release.
Chief Halloween Officer? I need to tell my kids that job exists.
In the past, the Trick or Trash program has outfitted schools and college campuses with free candy wrapper recycling boxes so that kids could reduce the waste created by the 600 million pounds of Halloween candy consumed in the United States each year, most of which ends up in landfills.
All of this program is in partnership with Rubicon, a digital waste and recycling solutions provider.
“Rubicon shares Mars’ commitment to creating a more sustainable future and we are proud to expand our Trick or Trash program this Halloween alongside one another,” said Nate Morris, Chairman and CEO of Rubicon, in the same release. “We know that working with a variety of partners across industries is essential to keeping as much waste out of landfills as possible and we are proud to collaborate with Mars, a global leader in the Halloween season and one who demonstrates a strong commitment to protecting our environment.”
Who’s to say if the carbon imprint required to mail the candy to the recycling facility cancels out recycling the wrappers, but let’s leave that thought for another day. It seems like Mars and Rubicon are tackling a significant problem and in a way that’s not a cost to customers.
According to the Food Network, the first run of bags sold out in less than a day and the second run of bags sold out in less than an hour — and the most recent run was released yesterday and they’re already gone. Good to know that a lot of people care about both candy and the earth.
It’s not clear whether there will be another run of bags released before the big day or not, but you can check their website to see.
