Welsh beauty bloggers aim to tackle pumpkin waste this year by urging us to slap it on our faces.
Charlotte Harding, a local blogger, published a blog post this week where she made a collection of her favourite beauty regimes using her children’s leftover Halloween pumpkin, including: facial scrubs and exfoliators, foot scrubs and facial masks. She said she has always preferred to use natural products so was “amazed” when she saw the benefits of pumpkin for hair and skin.
Hubbub, a charity that starts environmental campaigns, has created a #PumpkinRescue community that urges people not to waste their leftover pumpkin, after it has been reported that 15 million pumpkins are carved for Halloween in the UK every year. Also, according to Recycle for Wales, UK households waste 7 million tonnes of food every year, peaking at periods of celebration, such as: Christmas, Easter and Halloween.
The Welsh environmental secretary, Lesley Griffiths, says that the vision of Wales becoming Europe’s top recycling nation is “absolutely achievable”. Recent recycling figures for 2015-16 show Wales leading the rest of the UK and recycling a total of 60.2%, with Cardiff specifically recycling 58%. Andrew Osbourne, recycling officer for Waste Awareness Wales said, “These statistics are really encouraging.” However, councils are looking at alternative ways to recycle in order to meet the expectations of recycling 70% of waste by 2024-25.
Charlotte Harding suggests that we ought to use the remains of Halloween pumpkins to make beauty products that will moisture our hair and skin, even out skin tone and tackle anti-aging. Farah Dhukai, infamous beauty and food blogger, posted a video of her homemade pumpkin face mask to her 3.6 million Instagram followers and said, “This mask will make your skin look naturally airbrushed!”