When confronted with a rotting, deflating carved pumpkin, your first instinct might be to beeline to the trash as quickly as possible. But experts caution against doing so—warning that trashing pumpkins, and thus sending them to landfill, can release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Why shouldn’t you trash your pumpkin?
When pumpkins are sent to landfill, they release methane, a potent greenhouse gas that, over a 20 year period, is around 80 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere when compared to carbon dioxide.
Though a single pumpkin might not do much damage, if you consider how many pumpkins are trashed each autumn, it adds up.
How do I get rid of my pumpkin?
Composting sidesteps many of the harms that come with sending food waste, like pumpkins, to landfill.
What’s the best way to compost? If you have a curbside compost bin or designated compost for your apartment building, you can throw it there. If not, see if there are any drop-off composting sites near you. Some areas even organize dedicated events for residents to drop off old pumpkins. Since starting “pumpkin smashes” in 2014, Scarce and Illinois Extension have saved over 1,600 tons of pumpkins from landfill.
As you’re thinking about composting, keep in mind that it’s not just pumpkins that are compostable. Food is the single most common material sent to landfills in the U.S.—and wasted food is responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions. If you’ve been thinking about starting your own home compost, now is the best time to do it, says Enroth. “We often recommend to folks thinking about starting a compost pile, to try it in the fall because we usually have leaves, grass clippings, things to get that pile started. And you could incorporate that pumpkin into that compost pile,” he says. “It's a really good combination of materials for you to get compost out of it next year.”
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