Should I recycle my jack-o-lanterns?

Jack-o-lanterns are an iconic part of Halloween and the fall season. From pumpkins carved with toothy grins to Instagram-worthy works of art, these lit up decorations are a fall tradition. It shouldn’t be surprising then that most of the 2 billion pumpkins grown in the US each year aren’t used for food. But after Halloween is over and our gourds’ grins are starting to wilt, what do we do with them?

Wasting Away

Food waste is a widespread problem in the US. It’s the largest single part of the waste stream, meaning we throw out more food than any other item. And once in our landfills, food and other organic waste releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. We waste so much food, that some estimates suggest the annual greenhouse gas emissions of food waste is equivalent to 42 coal fired powered plants. 

So much of our food waste is pretty easy to avoid, and October is a great time of year to tackle one part of this problem. Every year, Americans trash over 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins. That is a ton (really tons) of waste caused by our jack-o-lanterns piling up. To less their impact we need to do our best to keep them out of landfills, and sorry, no, you can’t put them in your recycling bin. Fortunately, we have some tips that can help reduce the impact our pumpkins have on the environment. 

Use Every Part

The pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns are bred specifically for carving, so they’re a little different from the ones that get turned into canned pumpkin or that you’d use for cooking. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t use those pumpkin guts for a tasty treat. Separate out the seeds and roast them for a fun snack. You can also dry out the seeds and use them for salads, trail mix, or whatever you want. The flesh of the pumpkin has a ton of great uses too. You can turn it into a pumpkin soup or chowder, mix it into pumpkin muffins or bread, freeze it so you can break it out for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies, or scoop it into some milkshakes or a pumpkin spice latte (that actually has pumpkin in it, no false advertising here!). Whatever you do, get creative and help keep the usable parts out of our landfills. 

Compost!

Once your pumpkin starts to go bad, your jack-o-lantern starts to sag, or you’re just done with the gourds – you might be tempted to throw them out. Don’t do it! Pumpkins make a great addition to compost and can help create healthy soil for growing other fruits and vegetables. Composting is a process where organic material (like our food and yard waste) breaks down in a controlled way into a usable product that can help add nutrients to soil. If all the food waste in the US were composted, it would eliminate 30% of the material going to landfills and incinerators.

Options for composting your pumpkins vary by what county or municipality you live in. If you compost at home you can easily add your pumpkins to your pile, just remember to remove the seeds so you don’t accidentally grow your own pumpkin patch. If you have municipal compost pick-up or contract with a composting company, see if they’ll collect your pumpkins with the rest of your normal waste. You can also check to see if there’s a nearby drop-off for your old pumpkins. Many composting companies, community gardens, farmers markets or other groups run seasonal programs to accept jack-o-lantern waste. Make sure that your pumpkins are cleaned of any glitter, paint, or potentially toxic substances before you compost them. You don’t want to contaminate nutrient-rich soil with anything harmful.

Feed the Birds

If you don’t have easy access to composting, you can repurpose your pumpkins in other ways. Some farms do seasonal collections of gourds and pumpkins to use as animal feed. They’re nutrient-rich vegetables and can be great for certain animals. Keep an eye out for other seasonal collections, some farms will even take old Christmas trees for their livestock. You could also go the DIY route, jack-o-lanterns already have pre-carved holes in them, and you could string one up outside as a bird-feeder. Either use the seeds already in the pumpkin or fill it with bird seed, either one works. The feeder will eventually rot, making it ripe for composting, so a win-win! 

By reusing and repurposing pumpkins we can keep waste out of landfills, cut methane emissions, and have a bit of fun. This Halloween let’s make our waste problems a little less spooky!