Forget about orange and black this season for Halloween and instead think green.  So, what are some tips you need to know in order to decorate your home and have the best green costume ever. And all with a touch of an eco-friendly scare factor?

First of all, get rid of the idea you have to decorate with things that go bump in the night and on the environment harshly. There are plenty of ways to save the environment and enjoy one of American’s most loved holidays.

Here are nine ideas to get your Halloween minded eco-friendly decorating creative juices flowing.

1. Start with your costume.  How about recycling for the occasion and that means making your own costume from something bought from a second-hand store.  You might even check out a second-hand store and see what Halloween costumes are on sell there.  Most important, however is to stay away from the cheap store-bought costumes made from nonrecyclable petro-chemical based plastic or synthetic fibers.  These costumes are unhealthy for the environment and you.
2. If you are planning to paint your face as part of your costume be mindful of the ingredients.  Many Halloween store bought makeup options contain nasties like lead or worse.  Think safe and use only organic face paint with approval from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Even better make your own face paint from an organic recipe.
3. Consider the trick-or-treat bag.  Make sure it is not a bag you buy and use one time before throwing in the trash after Halloween.  Instead, decorate a recyclable canvas or shopping bag making it festive by personalizing it with your own Halloween artwork 
4. For outdoor decorating ideas create your Halloween decorations the eco-friendly way by looking around the house at what you already have at the ready.  Make huge yard spiders and tarantulas from oversized biodegradable black trash bags.  Stuff the bags with leaves that have fallen from the trees or old magazines and newspapers and draw on the face. After the holiday you already have the leaves bagged and ready for pick-up.
5. You can use old sheets to make ghosts hanging from the trees and tie a piece of yarn to make the head.
6. If you have a few pairs of old pantyhose, this will work great for stringing up to double as spider webs on the trees and around the front yard.    
7. You can make bats from old egg cartons.  Just decorate the cartons and hang on the trees outside.
8. Save milk jugs during the year and recycle to make milk jug ghosts and goblins.  Decorate both the inside or outside of your home with these creations and make it an activity the entire family can enjoy.  Start by cutting a hole in the clean milk jug and draw on spooky faces with a colored or black marker.  If you are using the milk jug ghost outside put a battery or, even better, a solar operated tea light into the milk carton hole.  After Halloween you can recycle the milk jugs as normal.
9. Finally, consider using seasonal gourds to create decorations outdoors or indoors on your tables. You can add a few mini-pumpkins here and there too.  It’s easy to draw decorations onto gourds and pumpkins so the sky is the limit with the Halloween message you want to send.

Look around your house and see what other fun ideas you can come up with for Halloween decorating and let us hear from you too.