Whether you’re looking for a costume that’s funny, heroic or truly terrifying, we’ve got you covered. Throw on one of these costumes and have yourself a green-themed Halloween!
1. Snorkeling Polar Bear
Put on white pants, a long-sleeved white shirt and white gloves with claws. Sew ears onto a white ski cap and pick up some bear claw slippers. Paint the tip of your nose black and then accessorize with a few of the following: snorkel, goggles, floaties, life vest or inner tube. If party-goers don’t find your costume to be very chilling, tell them that last year Arctic ice reached the third-lowest level ever recorded, putting you and your cubs at risk.
2. Global Warming
Put together a Planet Earth costume — dress in blue and attach some green paper or fabric continents, or test out your paper-mache skills and construct a sphere. Paint some melting ice caps on your outfit and be sure to carry a thermometer. You could also dress as Mother Nature, carry a thermometer, spritz yourself with water and complain about the heat. What’s more terrifying than an overheating planet?
3. Captain Planet
Dress up as this eco-warrior and show all those Supermans and Batmans what a real superhero looks like. Assemble the rest of the Planeteers and go as a group!
4. Rising Sea Levels
If you love a good pun, this is the costume for you. Cut out several letter C’s, dress completely in blue, and attach the C’s to your clothing. Have them begin at your ankle and ascend to the top of your shirt, making sure the majority of the C’s are located around your collar. Sea levels worldwide could rise more than 5 feet by 2100, threatening 180 U.S. cities. Scary stuff, huh?
5. Greenwashing
Dress in green from head to toe, paint your face green, and carry around a can of green paint and a paintbrush. Attach labels to yourself that say things like, “Eco-friendly” and “Made from 3% recycled materials.”
6. Bat With White-Nose Syndrome
Show up all those Draculas and sparkling vampires with a costume that’s much more terrifying. Upcycle an old umbrella into bat wings and ears, and glue white fuzz around your nose to represent white-nose syndrome, the fungus that’s infecting bats across the U.S. What makes it so scary? The syndrome has killed 90 to 100 percent of bats in some colonies and has infected 81 caves in nine states, and scientists say it could cause billions of dollars in agricultural losses.
7. Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Put on blue pants and a blue shirt and attach all the plastic waste you can find to your outfit — plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic forks, etc. When Halloween is over, be sure all that plastic finds its way into the recycling bin. Better yet, find a way to reuse it! And if you’re hosting the party, provide reusable plates and cups — 2.4 million pounds of plastic enter the world’s oceans every year.
8. Reusable Costume
Want to show a little skin this Halloween? Put on a too-small children’s costume — preferably one you’ve borrowed or picked up at a costume swap — and attach a sign to yourself that reads “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
9. Vanishing Bee
Pick up a used bumblee bee costume or make your own, and carry a large bedsheet. You’ll create quite the buzz when you occasionally throw the sheet over yourself and disappear just like the bees. After all, Halloween is the perfect time to discuss a good mystery.
10. Al Gore
An oldie, but a goodie, this costume is simple and sure to get a laugh. Put on a Gore mask and your most bland suit, and be sure to carry around a ManBearPig poster. Better yet, have a friend dress up as ManBearPig!
11. Oiled Bird
Put together a simple bird costume — a beak, a couple of wings, some feathers — and get ready to ruin it. Coat yourself in an oil-like substance such as chocolate syrup and engage party-goers in conversations about our oil dependence. Get your significant other to don a stained oil rigger jumpsuit and you’ve got a couple’s costume!
