The Frightful Truth About Halloween Pumpkins
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Every October, families rush to pumpkin patches to pick out the perfect gourds. Some use them to carve spooky jack-o'-lanterns, while others place them outside their homes as decor. Unfortunately, the fascination with the colorful fruit fades once Halloween ends, and most pumpkins end up in the trash.
A 2020 poll conducted by the UK-based non-profit Hubbub found that over fifty percent of the 24 million Halloween pumpkins that British citizens bought that year were destined for the landfill. Things are no better in the US, where about a billion pounds of pumpkins get tossed out and left to rot in landfills annually. In addition to the massive amount of food waste generated, the rotting fruit also emits large amounts of methane — a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide.
Fortunately, this pollution problem is easy to solve. We can all help eliminate the food waste by keeping the edible portions of the fruit during carving. Roasted pumpkin seeds make a nutritious snack, while the flesh can be transformed into a delicious soup, a tasty puree, or a lip-smacking pie.
Once Halloween is over, drop your jack-o'-lanterns at a local compost collection center if possible. Better still, see if your city or town hosts a pumpkin smashing event and have fun tossing yours on the ground with your friends. Don't worry, the remains will be collected and composted once all the gourds have been smashed.
There are many other ways to ensure the fruit does not end up in landfills. Fill your hollowed-out pumpkins with grains and leave them in the yard or hanging from a tree for birds, squirrels, and other garden critters to enjoy. If your pumpkin is too far gone to salvage, bury it in your backyard — your garden will be all the happier for it.
Have a safe and sustainable Halloween!
Resources: sciencealert.com, theatlantic.com, hubbub.org.uk
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220 Comments
pika10over 3 yearsWhat a sustainable way to use pumpkins!
bscover 3 yearsAfter my family and I carve our pumpkins, we roast the seeds with a little salt and butter and they are delicious!
peytonpanda12over 3 yearsI get pumpkins to carve every year but I never thought about how we are wasting them😢
azzy_24995over 3 yearsI love halloween btw halloween is the day of the dead. Also my pumpkin says BOO in korean!
emerald_cheetahover 3 yearsWasting food is just shameful; so many people don't have any food at all this season!
ultrajangoover 3 yearsI love pumpkin bread, but not pumpkin soup.
brooklynjover 3 yearsWell I moved to a diffrent country for Halloween and we where on vacation! I heard they go big for Halloween! So when the day came I threw on my Halloween outfit and we went outside! To my shock there where no decorations! I got really sad but then we went to the mall there was a haunted house there and I really wanted to go but my family hated that stuff! But my dad took me anyway it was fun but I was hoping to do alot more on Halloween! Plus it said this place went big for Halloween (I can't say where for my own safety) and they didn't have decorations they didn't have much events IT WAS SO BORING! Then I called my family back where I lived they told all the fun exciting things they did for Halloween I got upset because I wanted that to happen to me I wanted to have as much fun as they did! PLUS NO ONE HERE KNEW WHAT MY COSTUME WAS (BTW it was 11 from Stranger Things) I was so upset! I wanted to do alot more and I did go Trunk or Treating BUT IT WAS SO SMALL! Hope yall had fun.
foomillionover 3 yearsIf you take the seeds from a pumpkin sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on them its delicious! And then you don't waste them so its a win win!😍
kate8over 3 yearsgood idea im going to do that
summer_beachover 3 yearsI didn't get to crave pumpkins this year. I was really looking forward to it. 😞
griff1boyover 3 yearsAm so sorry
hockeygirl56over 3 yearsI feel sad for you.
catsarecute123over 3 yearsMe either me sad😭
sprootiscuteover 3 yearsI feel sorry for that 😭- ultrajangoover 3 yearsthat stinks. 😕
- ultrajangoover 3 yearsmy family accidentally waited till Halloween to do it, but all the big ones at the farm we went to were either gone or rotten, so we had to get little ones.
animekittyover 3 yearswow so sad why do people dump their pumpkins