Halloween Is More Tricks Than Treats for Wildlife

From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director

Halloween can be a scary time for wildlife. More than 80% of Halloween costume materials come from plastics made from fossil fuels. Decorations are just as frightful, with wispy plastic spider webs and other favorites creating choking and entanglement hazards. Meanwhile wild animals like painted woolly bats and spiders are killed to become decor — it’s a good time to speak up against that practice. Even all those little plastic-wrapped candy bars create extra waste: One trick-or-treater can generate a pound of trash on Halloween.

Americans are expected to spend more than $13 billion this year celebrating spooky season. The Center for Biological Diversity's Simplify the Holidays campaign works to disrupt holiday consumerism that’s harming the wild and help people build traditions that bring more meaning and less stuff to celebrations. Check out our ideas for a wildlife-friendly Halloween and follow Simplify the Holidays on Instagram for year-round content. Then read on for our newly released Food Justice Film Festival interviews, upcoming webinars on American burying beetles and emergency preparedness, and more.

Crowded Planet: Butterflies have evolved over millions of years to become some of the most colorful creatures in the world, which helped them survive in wild, biodiverse ecosystems. But being bright in a world of disappearing tropical forests makes them easier targets for predators, so butterflies are once again evolving — they’re losing their color. Once brilliantly hued, butterflies in deforested areas have turned to muted browns and greys. Protecting intact, native ecosystems is critical for saving species and our colorful world.

Coke's Plastic Problem Called Out

On World Clean Up Day last month, a massive sand art message on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach called out Coca-Cola, one of the biggest plastic polluters in the world. The art was created by campaigners from The Story of Stuff Project to urge the company to shift to reusable bottles.

On that same day, the Center, The Story of Stuff Project, Beyond Plastics, and Plastic Pollution Coalition delivered a petition with more than 60,000 signatures to Coca-Cola asking the company to recommit to its reusable packaging goals. Coca-Cola produces 134 billion single-use plastic bottles every year. Thank you to all who signed.

Here's one thing you can do: The ability to refill your own food and drink containers largely rests on federal and state-level food codes. Learn about recent changes to the food code and how it can be used to expand reuse at a webinar hosted by the Northeast Recycling Council featuring Center Senior Campaigner Kelley Dennings on Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT.

Watch: Food Justice Film Festival Interviews

The Food Justice Film Festival is less than a week away, but you can get into the festival’s stories now by watching our exclusive interviews with the directors, farmers, and activists featured in the films. The Center’s film festival coordinator, Linda Rico, sat down with Jacob Beaton (Indigenous food sovereignty activist, owner of Tea Creek Farm, and main subject of the film Tea Creek), Mark Decena (director of Farming While Black), Debbie Millikan and Jamey Steiner (directors of Feeding Change), and Raphael Sbarge (director of LA Foodways) — to name a few of our featured guests this year.

In a few days (any time between Oct 23 and 26), you can watch the inspiring lineup of films: Farming While Black, Tea Creek, LA Foodways, and Feeding Change. Here’s how to sign up and join the free virtual festival.

Library of Things Campus Project Gets Award

A “library of things” is a collection of nontraditional items you can borrow, from tools to games to kitchen equipment and technology. Last year the Center, in partnership with Shareable, worked with campus community members, including the University of North Florida’s Department of Housing and Residence Life, to start one on campus — and now it’s been chosen to receive a Keep Jacksonville Beautiful award, an honor that celebrates local environmental efforts. The award will be presented by the Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Commission on November 21, 2025, to UNF’s Housing and Residence Life and the Center’s student fellow, Chandler Poole, who led the effort to establish the library. This is more than just an achievement for the Center and our partners — it recognizes the role libraries of things play in reducing environmental harm, protecting habitat, and decreasing people’s consumption while helping students borrow items that they may not have been able to afford to buy.

Here’s one thing you can do: Learn how to start a library of things at your college or university with our how-to guide.

Webinar: American Burying Beetles on the Brink

American burying beetles are vibrant orange-and-black beauties of the insect world. They’re the largest carrion beetles in North America, known for breaking down bird and rodent carcasses and returning the nutrients back to the ecosystem. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, American burying beetles face habitat loss and scarce food sources due to expanding human development. They’re also featured on our Endangered Species Condoms packages.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of our condoms project, the Center is hosting a webinar all about American burying beetles on Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT with a panel of experts from Roger Williams Park Zoo, St. Louis Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo, and the Wilds. Together they have more than 30 years of experience leading breeding, reintroduction, and monitoring programs to bring these efficient recyclers back from the brink of extinction.

Here’s one thing you can do: Register for the webinar now.

Bring Reproductive Health to Emergency Preparedness

Disasters like hurricanes can disrupt access to abortions and contraception, increase sexual risk-taking behaviors, and limit healthcare services, resulting in higher rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. To address these challenges, the Center developed sexual health emergency preparedness (SHEP) kits, which bridge reproductive justice, gender equity, and climate resilience to help communities prepare before disaster strikes. Working with local sexual and reproductive health leaders and mutual aid groups, the campaign has distributed hundreds of kits containing items like emergency contraception, condoms, pregnancy tests, and period products.

On Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, community leaders will join the Center for a webinar about how the SHEP campaign creates a model to empower communities to meet reproductive health needs during climate emergencies.

Here’s one thing you can do: Register now to learn more about sexual health preparedness and how to bring this campaign to your community.

Wildlife Spotlight: Pacific Pocket Mouse

Pacific pocket mice have external fur-lined cheek pouches where they can stuff seeds when foraging. They carry the seeds in these built-in pockets back to their burrows to help get through the winter. If the weather is rough, they can hibernate underground until spring. But with habitat destruction from urban expansion, development, agriculture, and climate change, these tiny imperiled mice are running out of places to hide.

Even though they’re only found in three locations on the California coast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied requests to grant them critical habitat. But there’s good news: The Center petitioned to give pocket mice additional protections under the California Endangered Species Act, and earlier this month, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to declare them a candidate species, granting protections while commissioners complete a yearlong review of the species’ status.

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Photo credits: Painted woolly bat by Pitoon Kitratanasak/Shutterstock; Amiga arnaca indianacristoi butterfly by Indiana Cristóbal Ríos-Málaver/Wikimedia; beach graphic courtesy of The Story of Stuff Project; people using LoT items via Canva; American burying beetle courtesy of South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks; Sexual Health Emergency Preparedness (SHEP) kits courtesy of Kelley Dennings/Center for Biological Diversity; Pacific pocket mouse by Cheryl S. Brehme, USGS.

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