50 Affordable & Eco-friendly Halloween Treats

Going green at Halloween can be inexpensive in some ways. For example, you can reuse costumes, swap costumes, make homemade Halloween costumes, bake organic Halloween cookies from scratch with bulk ingredients and more.

That said, it can be expensive to hand out healthier or greener treats to a zillion trick or treaters. When bulk conventional candy is not only plentiful but dirt cheap, it makes it hard to even want to go green on Halloween.

Still, you should go green. How come?

Halloween is big business in the USA. Especially over the last few years, consumers have made Halloween a smashing success for businesses, buying up goodies and treats by the truckload and all that money supports the continued success of whomever you’re buying from. If you’re buying conventional chocolates, for example, there’s a good chance you’re supporting forced child labor, a highly documented issue that occurs in West Africa, where a lot of conventional chocolate comes from.

You’ve got two choices as I see it.

You can support eco-friendly, healthier, more ethical companies OR you can support shady companies like Hershey and Nestle. It can cost more to support better companies, but why have a lame Halloween that’s supported by child labor or chemicals?

Can you find inexpensive Halloween treats?

Yes! One of my main goals at this site is to help you keep it green and safe without spending insane amounts of cash to do so. While everyone’s idea of “cheap” varies, my idea of an inexpensive Halloween treat is right around 50 cent per treat. But of course lower is better. With that in mind, let’s look at 100 awesome Halloween treats for trick or treaters that will not break the bank.

*NOTE – prices below may change – your best bet is to buy Halloween treats early!

My #1 Halloween Treat Recommendation of 2012

Equal Exchange has many treat options that boast ideal green family benefits. Equal Exchange treats are Fair Trade, organic and perfectly sized for kids. This is actually the candy I’ll be handing out this year for Halloween, and if I can afford them, you sure can (I’m on a budget here people).

Equal Exchange treats are WAY cheaper than you might think, especially if you go in with other families and buy in bulk. For example, yes the large bag is $175 but you get 888 treats, which works out to just 20 cent per treat (a steal for organic Fair Trade candy), so split between many families, it’s an excellent deal. This also makes Equal Exchange chocolates the perfect treat for large organizations too, such as companies who hand out treats or schools.

Below are their best Halloween options.

• $0.20 per treat – bag of 888 Organic Milk Chocolate Minis with a Hint of Hazelnut (Organic, Fair Trade, soy- and gluten-free)
• $0.23 per treat - box of 150 Organic Milk Chocolate Minis with a Hint of Hazelnut
• $0.20 per treat - bag of 888 Organic Dark Chocolate Minis (Organic, Fair Trade, vegan, soy- and gluten-free)
• $0.23 per treat - box of 150 Organic Dark Chocolate Minis

On top of the amazing deals above, Equal Exchange is also running their annual Fair Trade Your Halloween campaign this year. This is a killer deal - probably the best out there. You can order a Fair Trade Halloween Kit for just $24! In this kit, you’ll get 1 box of 150 Fair Trade Organic chocolate “minis” in dark chocolate or milk chocolate, 150 illustrated information cards and one instruction sheet about how to pass this info out on Halloween.

That’s an outstanding $0.16 per treat for organic, Fair Trade chocolate. Can you believe it!? The kits are coming soon, so visit Fair Trade Your Halloween campaign to sign up for an email reminder when kits become available.  Also, keep reading to see many other affordable Halloween Treats.

Eco-friendly Halloween Chocolate

• $0.50 per treat Trick or Treat Milk Chocolates from Sweet Earth Chocolates (organic and fair trade)
• $0.50 per treat Coco-Zen Cinnamon or Regular Milk Chocolate Squares (Fair Trade)
• $0.35 per treat Sjaak’s Halloween Orange Bites or Halloween Peanut Butter Bites (100% certified organic, Fair Trade certified)
• $0.14 – $0.28 per treat (depending on how many coins you pass out to each kid) Milk Chocolate Coins (Fair Trade)
• *$0.77 per treat CLIF Kid ZBaR Full Moon Brownie (read my review) *NOTE: Online, these are $0.77 per treat, but I’ve seen them on sale at my local grocer for 2 for $6 (sometimes less) which knocks them down to $0.50 per treat.

Eco-friendly Vegan Chocolate Treats

• $0.50 per treat Trick or Treat Dark Chocolates from Sweet Earth Chocolates (organic and fair trade)
• $0.50 per treat Coco-Zen Orange or Mint Dark Chocolate Squares (Fair Trade)
• $0.14 – $0.28 per treat (depending on how many coins you pass out to each kid) Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Coins

Eco-friendly Vegan Halloween Treats (beyond chocolate)

• $0.05 per treat (about) YummyEarth Organic Candy Drops, Roadside Root Beer
• $0.38 per treat - Stretch Island Fruit Leather
• $0.09 per treat YummyEarth Organic Lollipops (gluten-free and kosher)
• $0.40 per treat Organic Sour Jelly Beans (gluten and soy free)
• $0.15 or so per treat GoNaturally Organic Apple Hard Candies (gluten free and organic)
• $0.05-0.07 per treat Pure Fun Organic Candy Assorted Fruit Rocks (certified organic and kosher)
• *$0.66 per treat Clif Crunch Bar, Blueberry Crisp *NOTE: Online, these are $0.66 per treat, but I’ve seen them on sale at my local grocer for 2 for $5 which knocks them down to $0.25 per treat.

Eco-friendly Gluten-free Halloween Treats

• $0.25 per treat Surf Sweets Sour Worms Singles (organic and vegan)
• $0.50 per treat Soft Caramels (gluten-free)
• $0.22 per treat Glee Gum Mini Packs
• $0.10 per treat (about) YummyEarth Organic Lollipops, Mango Tango
• *$0.56 per treat Clif Kid Organic Fruit Rope (vegan) *NOTE: Online, these are $0.56 per treat, but I’ve seen them on sale at my local grocer for 2 for $6 which knocks them down to $0.50 per treat – (read my ClifBar company review)
• $0.15 or so per treat Go Naturally Organic Hard Candy Blood Orange
• $0.52 per treat YummyEarth Organic Gummy Bears Snack Packs
• $0.16 per treat Maple Syrup Hard Candy (allergen-free)
• $0.05 per treat (about) Organic Hopscotch Butterscotch Candy Drops

Awesome Mixes

• $0.21 per treat Trick or Treat – Natural Candy Mix (w/ Chocolate)
• $0.37 per treat Gourmet Halloween Candy Mix
• $0.22 per treat Tiny Treats – Natural Candy Mix (w/ Chocolate)

Unique Eco-friendly Halloween Goodies

• $0.51 per treat EnviroKidz Organic Chocolate Koala Crispy Rice Bars
• $0.46 per treat Nature’s Path Organic Apple Cinnamon Hot Cereal Packs -  (read my Nature’s Path review)
• *$0.72 per treat Clif Kid ZBar, Chocolate Chip *NOTE: Online, these are $0.72 per treat, but I’ve seen them on sale at my local grocer for 2 for $5 which knocks them down to $0.42 per treat.
• $0.51 per treat EnviroKidz Organic Lemur Peanut Choco Drizzle Crispy Rice Bar
• $0.24 per treat Organic Agave Nectar Sticks
• $0.40 per treat Organic Honey Sticks (kosher, zero added flavors)
• $0.44 per treat Annie’s Bunny Snack Variety Packs
• *$0.73 per treat Nature’s Path Organic Granola Bars, Lotta Apricot or Organic Yogurt Berry Strawberry *NOTE these are $0.73 online, but usually way cheaper at my local grocer – as in 2 for 5 or 2 for 6 which knocks them down to affordable.

My #1 Non-edible Halloween Treat Recommendation of 2012

Kids like candy, but they also love other goodies. For 2012, my favorite non-edible Halloween treat is the 52 Series by Lynn Gordon. The 52 series is this awesome series of activity cards for kids that come in all kinds of topics.

You can easily pass out one card per kid for just $0.14 per kid. At this low cost, you can include a cool $0.24 Dr Seuss Lorax Project Pencils made from recycled newspaper, bringing this Halloween hand-out total to just $0.38 per kid! An amazing deal.

• Learn more about this non-edible Halloween treat idea.

More Eco-minded Non-edible Halloween Treats

• $0.16 per treat The Lorax Project Giant Stickers.

• $0.25 per treat Silly Bandz Kids Rubber Bracelets  - Halloween Glow In The Dark.

• $0.50 per treat Sunflower seed packets or another sort of seed packet. American Meadows has tons of kid-friendly seed packets to choose from, like Butterfly Garden Seeds, Bee Happy Seeds and more.

• $0.46 per treat Crayon Rocks.

• $0.53 per treat (one cookie cutter per child) Wilton Halloween Metal Cookie Cutters.

• $Almost free Homemade Play Dough – make a batch of organic play dough, color it with natural food coloring (I like Chocolate craft natural liquid food colors), put dough balls in little bags and hand out. Because this treat is oh so cheap, you can even maybe bag it up with one of those Halloween cookie cutters I mentioned above. This also makes a great Halloween party favor.

• $0.49 per treat Crazy Crayons Eco Stars (100% Recycled Crayons).

Made in the USA Halloween Candy

*Note: As shown above, that there are many greener companies selling extremely affordable Halloween treats. It’s almost nuts to NOT buy one of the more eco-friendly options above. Especially when you consider that conventional candy is likely to have fake food dyes and other non-natural ingredients in them.

That said, if organic, eco-friendly, healthier or Fair Trade is still too expensive for you or tough to come by, your next best choice is to stick to made in the USA candy. Not all companies in the USA are ethical or green, however, buying close to home helps ensure you don’t support much shadier other country workplace ethics and it helps lower your footprint, because you’re not having candy shipped all over the world to get to you.

All of the candy below, while not, in my opinion, particularly eco-friendly, is less expensive and totally made in the USA. I tried to stick to less chemically infused candy, but it’s tough with conventional due to food coloring and such, so be careful when choosing.

• $0.17 per treat Milk Chocolate Jack-O’-Lantern Discs
• $0.20 per treat Ghost & Friends Milk Chocolate Halloween Treats
• $0.32 per treat Air Heads White Mystery (vegan)
• $0.42 per treat Mike & Ike Halloween Variety (vegan)
• $0.14 per treat Milk Chocolate Earth Balls
• $0.18 per treat Blow Pops (gluten-free)
• $0.25 per treat Caramel Apple Pops (gluten-free)
• $0.03 per treat Tootsie Roll Midgees (gluten-free)
• $0.20 per treat Charleston Chew Vanilla (gluten-free)
• $0.24 per treat Junior Mints Minis
• $0.09 per treat Dubble Bubble Gum
• $0.09 per treat Chick-O-Stick (kosher and vegan)
• $0.09 per treat Dum Dums (kosher and vegan) NOTE:  If I were you, I’d take the time to go to the manufacturers website and choose a flavor tub that’s not mixed and that does not contain red or yellow number 5 food dye. Cotton Candy, Blueberry, Cream Soda and Blu Raspberry are the least offensive chemical color wise.

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Tagged as: green Halloween, Halloween party, Halloween treats, organic Halloween