I usually just bring it into work. I can see why you're okay with throwing it away, but even though it's not nutritious food that seems a bit too wasteful for me. I find there's always someone willing to eat it. Plus, candy really does last a long time, so I find if I stash it away somewhere I'll have it around when I'm craving a bite sized treat, but it's not out in the open where I feel the need to snack on it all day.

Couldn't you avoid getting it in the first place? Throwing it away seems entirely wrong to me - more on the basis of wasted energy than nutrition. To a European ear, it sounds very... American.

Candy is trash! Delicious, poisonous trash. From the slave traded ingredients to the lead laced chocolate, most Halloween candy is pretty evil.

@herzsprung, did you read the post? She said "I don't have kids, so the candy that comes into my house is usually given by well-meaning friends or relatives..."

How about donating it to Operation Gratitude or Operation Shoebox (both of which ship stuff - including candy) to troops overseas? Or lots of dentists offices have "buy back" programs.

Getting rid of it is one thing, but throwing it away just seems wasteful. Either tell the well-meaning friends you'd rather not have candy in future, or give it away to someone else...

The linked article about habit formation is interesting, and I'm all for developing healthy eating habits, particularly in childhood. But there is no mention of the significance of self control, and how to teach this to kids other than simply removing/substituting the 'trigger' or rewarding more desirable behaviour. Assuming this is not an addiction, then surely it should be possible to have sweet treats in the home without succumbing to temptation! What happens if you pass the candy aisle at the grocery store; what do you do if you're faced with a huge dessert menu when out with friends at a restaurant, or if a colleague brings candy into work? Do you HAVE to stuff your face?

There MUST be some charity to which you could donate that candy. Sure, it's not healthy, but underprivileged kids deserve a happy Halloween, too!

I usually bring things like that to the office. I don't really have a sweet tooth (a block of cheese doesn't last the day in my fridge though) so I eat candies because they're in front of me, not because I want them. And it makes the coworkers happy!

Sure, candy might be trash nutrition-wise, but it still requires a lot of energy to produce and ship around the country, etcetera. So while throwing it away might be good for your health, it doesn't benefit the environment. And since it doesn't go bad for ages, why throw it away? Just learn to control yourself instead. Or give it away.

I bring it to the office and just leave it out in the kitchen. If you don't work there are PLENTY of charities and programs that would be more than happy to take it off your hands. It's insane to me that you would just throw it out.

I wish I had thought about this BEFORE I bought a bag of candy for the wee Halloweeners, but next year I'm getting little tangerines ("Cuties") and drawing Jack-o-lantern faces on them to pass out as treats. Whatever's left over, I will GLADLY finish off! This year, however, the leftovers are going to the office. Sorry office mates!

I find nothing wrong with the OP comments, intent or actions. For me, I just bring it into the office but if I worked from home, I would have zero problem throwing it in the trash. Better in there than on my a&&.

my husband sorted out the candy he likes to take on runs or bike rides as 'fuel' and we bagged up the rest and put it on a high shelf that nobody can reach. All ready for next year's halloween!

@SEAtoNYC I did read the whole post, and I still don't see why you can't avoid getting it in the first place. When well meaning friends offer, all it takes is a "no thank you," and then you don't have to throw things away.

i wish my office was filled with unloved candy. i'll totally eat it, as long as it's not super lame like double bubble.

Our Brownie troop runs a "reverse trick-or-treating" program at the elementary school (and I'm guessing other elementary schools do as well). Like Kate said above, the candy is shipped overseas to the troops. A win for everyone!

Yes, this does seem totally wasteful and somewhat hypocritical to say it's justified because it "barely qualifies as food". I'm just going by what the OP wrote, but it seems as if she didn't really try to find something else to do with it.. or perhaps just refuse it in the first place. I'm sure her friends would understand if she asked them not to gift her any more candy since she's not going to eat it. I'm also sure her friends would be irked to know she just accepts it and then throws it away. Not only is food being wasted, but whatever money/time/effort the friends put into giving it to her is also thrown away. By not saying anything, it's just going to perpetuate the cycle.

I'm putting whatever we have by Monday in our emergency food box (which all you Eastcoasters have now right?) since it stays good for a year or two.

I wouldn't throw it away, I'd donate it, but I'm not here to tell other people what to do with their candy. I'm not sure why the post writer here feels the need to share their candy manifesto with us.

Did you need some positive reinforcement for your bravery in throwing (bad) food in the garbage?

I do have a kid - but I have him sort his candy, and we send everything that he doesn't want to Operation Gratitude. Usually I just go to the Post Office and get one of those pre-paid Priority Mail boxes. Off it goes to kids who actually can use empty calories!

Throwing it away?? Ugh. Didn't the Kitchn JUST post an article a couple of weeks ago stating that Americans throw away 40% of our food?

AND WE WONDER WHY. Because, somehow, it is altogether too difficult to say "no thank you" to a fellow adult who is in the process of giving you candy. Or give it away. Or take it to the office. Or WHATEVER.

My stars, we are privileged and selfish.

That stuff is poison, the wrappers are wasteful and terrible plus Nestlé makes Exxon seem like saints. We used to have lots left over, now we simply tell people we're on a special diet, no candy please.

This stuff isn't really "food" but there are so many places that it could go to instead of the trash can, so I think throwing it out just seems lazy. Wrapped candy can last for years. You can easily keep it for next year, or donate it to any variety of organizations that allow it. And since you're pawning some off to your friends already, why wouldn't any of them take more candy? If you're getting so much candy that you can't give it all away, maybe you need to tell your relatives to stop sending you so much candy.

I definitely wouldn't feel bad about throwing it away, but I am in the ruining-my-coworkers-diets camp. Donating it would be nice, but I rarely have THAT much spare candy lying around that it really seems worth it.

It's okay to make mistakes. Just inform friends and family that these companies ruin beautiful rainforest habitat, plus create plastic pollution, and anyway you're on a special diet and can't eat junk.

@SEAtoNYC: And? Why can't you say no to well-meaning friends and relatives? I mean, if she wrote something like "I get it from evil mother-in-law who takes every chance she gets to get offended at me" or "I get it from my boss and I don't want to offend him" I could understand not saying no, but nothing, absolutly nothing in the article explains why the author couldn't say no. And whats makes it even more ridicoulous, is that instead of just telling the well-meaning friends and relatives that she doesn't want them, she takes them and then tells the whole internet that she doesn't want them and throws them away. If I were one of her well-meaning friends and relatives I would be pretty angry. I really don't get how its apparently impossible to explain to your well-meaning friends and relatives that you don't want the candy but then tell it to them and everyone else indirectly via the internet. But I am only a lowly European and maybe while this seems just wastefull to Europeans its actually polite in the US to take the candy, throw it away and then write an article about it while it would be horrible offensive to either say "No thank you" or gift the candy to somebody (anybody! the office, other friends, businesses, charities, neighbours...) else?

@fulnin I don't know if it's a cultural thing but at least in New England it's considered very rude to turn away any gift (as an aside, my Native American friends taught me it's considered an insult in their circles). Every year my mom and sister ask for a list of stuff I want. Every year they ignore it and give me tons of junk. I begged them to simply donate $15 to one charity from a list; that was met with stone-cold silence. So I also post about my frustration. Not to say it's okay; it's wasteful and let it be a lesson to us, talk to your friends and family about this! Tell them you're on a diet and any wasteful / harmful gifts will be donated.

(I meant environmentally harmful gifts; although I also have a problem donating stuff I consider to be crap).

At the risk of sounding very 'European' - do adults give each other Halloween confectionary in America?

And this: "I've started tossing out most of the junk food that comes my way..." Any food in my house is there because I brought it in. Can't think how else it would find it's way there?

Hey everyone, Anjali (the post author) here. I just wanted to clear up a couple misconceptions regarding my original post. First, without getting into the exact politics of my family relationships, no -- I am not able to turn away the candy before I receive it. And second, the amount of candy I'm throwing away is usually about half a bag of some sort of fun-sized candy, not large amounts that could be donated. My husband and I both work from home, so unfortunately we don't have co-workers that we can foist it off onto. As I mentioned, I give what I can to friends...and the rest goes into the trash.

That Halloween candy IS trash -- not real food. It does no one any good, so passing it on to charities or co-workers doesn't help anyone. Have a piece or two, then throw the rest out. The garbage is where it really belongs anyhow.

Absolutely throw it away and feel no guilt! It is not good for anyone! There is no one in the United States who needs more candy, so unless you can afford to mail it overseas to I don't know even where -- toss it out and you are doing the world good.

If we're all in agreement that Halloween is just a trash 'food' fest, I wonder why AT and Kitchn always devote so many posts to it?

If we're all in agreement that Halloween is just a trash 'food' fest, I wonder why AT and Kitchn always devote so many posts to it?

People are really missing the bigger picture here. If you find yourself throwing gifts in the trash, isn't it time to have an honest conversation with people giving you what's going to end up in a landfill within just days?

Wow, lots of harsh comments! I hate (HATE) food waste as much as the next person, but the idea of declining a well-meaning gift strikes me as extremely rude and selfish. I would personally be hurt if a friend declined my box of chocolates for any of the reasons mentioned above.

Many AT posts deal with getting rid of unnecessary clutter and to me this post addressed the same issue with food. You wouldn't donate half-used bottles of shampoo or used underwear - same goes with half-eaten bags of candy. And getting rid of clothes that were never worn is just the same 'waste', the difference is that we have a different relationship to food. The Kitchn regularly suggests ways to reduce food waste anyway! So I hope all the harsh comments come from people who never had to throw away a moldy onion or lettuce that was forgotten in the fridge, or leftover milk gone sour before they had time to use the whole bottle...

Your local homeless or women's shelter would probably be happy to put your leftover Halloween candy in their Christmas treat bags. If you have "too much to keep in the house", you have enough to donate - every piece helps and the time commitment to phone/email and drop off is minimal.

It says something profound that one defends an inability to say no to a simple act. That, more than the candy thrashing (as poor a choice as that is), is part of America's cultural decline --- too little courage for personal authenticity.

Repeatedly giving the impression an undesirable gift is acceptable is silly. There isn't a single conceivable circumstance that would require us to become gift hostages to anyone. Even candy from God or the President would be easily refused here. And if this is not some sort of repeating dilemma, then why all the hoopla about it?

Oddly enough, the first sign I got that the relationship with a dysfunctional parent was ending was all the inappropriate gifts. That screamed either "I don't know you and don't care that I don't" or worse, "I wish you were someone else; I wish you were me". Part of the art of gift giving is to know the person well enough to select something to their tastes. In my family, it was merely another way to bribe or placate, to attempt to control. Ugh.

I encourage anyone stuck in that game to recognize it is not a gift and free yourself from the obligation of acting as if it is. But you may need to review the nature of a dysfunctional relationship to which you've been a willing half that has more problems than gifts that are not gifts. All the candy trashing in the world won't fix that.

@Emmi: Are you providing them incentive to repeat this failure by accepting it every time? Begging is pretty childish, if you stop and think about it. Just politely refuse the gift (read it as "the invitation to be again disrespected") and watch what happens. From a different perspective, it is not rude to decline games disguised as gift giving. In fact, game refusal is as much a legitimate health-minded obligation as eating well or sleeping enough. Think of it as an exercise in good mental hygiene.

You alone hold the power to whether this game continues or not. Are you ready to be respected?