The sheer waste of Halloween is enough to make any environmentalist scream. From individually packaged treats to cheap one-time costumes, the holiday is usually anything but sustainable.

"Halloween is a great time to have fun with family and friends but it generates a huge amount of throw-away waste," Kim McKay, a green-living expert and author of the National Geographic True Green book series, told the Green Guide by email.

So "why not make your Halloween as natural as possible … ?" McKay said.

You can enjoy the holiday in a way that's less frightful for the Earth with these tips:

Make Homemade Halloween Costumes and Decorations

Homemade Halloween costumes and decorations can both save you money and prevent another witch hat from reaching the landfill. The Center for the New American Dream, a Maryland-based nonprofit that encourages responsible consumerism, compiled this list of conservation-minded costumes:

• The fried egg: Get a cheap white sheet and cut a hole big enough to fit your head through. Paint your face yellow.

• Freudian slip: Wear an old slip over your clothes, get a big cigar, and make a nametag that reads "Sigmund."

• Bag of jelly beans: Get an empty dry cleaning bag, cut holes for your arms and legs, then step into the bag so it is loose around your middle. Fill with different colored balloons, then knot the bag to secure it around your neck.

There are also some more cheap and creative costume ideas at the National Geographic Kids Web site.

For more on environmentally safe Halloween cosmetics, read the Green Guide's "Low Impact Trick-or-Treating."

Haunting the House

For cheaper and less wasteful decorations, the conservation group WWF offers these ideas:

• Turn stockings with runs or holes into "spider webs."

• Paint foam packing peanuts to look like worms.

• Fashion clean Styrofoam into Halloween masks.

• Turn cardboard boxes into tombstones.

If you hang up decorative lights, Kim McKay also suggests seeking out energy-saving LED bulbs, which use just 10 percent of the power that incandescent lights do and last a hundred times longer.

And if you throw a Halloween party, ditch the nondegradable essentials, McKay advises. Look for bioplastics and natural "fiberware" made from corn, sugarcane, and bamboo, or 100 percent recycled-paper products. For candles, purchase soy or beeswax models—traditional candles are made from petroleum-derived paraffin wax.

Choose Pesticide-Free Halloween Pumpkins

Jack-o'-lanterns with ghoulish faces may be scary, but perhaps even more horrifying is the fact that many pumpkins are grown with toxic pesticides such as malathion, according to the Nature Conservancy. The conservation group recommends checking out Local Harvest or Pumpkinpatchesandmore.org, both of which point you to nearby pick-your-own farms that often sell pesticide-free pumpkins.

WWF also helps you to make an eco-statement with your pumpkin. Download environmental-themed stencils of coral reefs or gorillas from the group's website.

Be Conscious of Your Halloween Candy

Conventionally farmed cacao, the base ingredient for chocolate, has some decidedly unsavory practices. Many farms still grow the shade-tolerant plants in full sun, which requires pesticides and fertilizers to stave off diseases, according to the Nature Conservancy. And small cacao farmers are often paid low prices that aren’t enough to feed the workers' families.

The conservancy suggests these sustainable chocolate alternatives:

• Endangered Species chocolate gets shade-grown cacao from farmers in Nigeria. The confectioner donates 10 percent of its profits to various charitable causes, including endangered species. The company sells some bite-size chocolate selections ideal for trick-or-treating.

• The Global Exchange online store offers a "Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kit," which includes 40 pieces of fair-trade organic dark chocolate, Halloween postcards, traditional Mexican party streamers, a Fair Trade is Bootiful poster, and an ecofriendly reusable trick-or-treat bag.

For more on Fair Trade Halloween candy, read the Green Guide's "Keep Halloween Fair."

For more tips on sustainable celebrations, drop by the Green Guide's holiday hub.