It may horrify some but Halloween’s popularity continues to grow in Australia, with one in five embracing the spooky spirit.

The annual festival has become a multigenerational community celebration, with nationwide spending expected to hit $500m this year, according to Roy Morgan research.

But many of today’s costumes, decorations and treat wrappers are used once and thrown away, leading to ghastly amounts of waste and litter, and a wicked problem for wildlife.

But fear not: simple tricks can turn this cursed event into a frightfully good “Hallow-green”.

Magic up costumes and treat bags

“It is just one day of the year, and pretty much everything associated with it is single-use plastics,” says Jenny Geddes, the chief executive of Clean Up Australia.

Plastics make up 80% of litter i

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