Pumpkin Composting
Compost Your Pumpkin
We are making it easy for you to keep pumpkins out of our area landfills by bringing them to our office, 4125 Humphrey St. or North Newstead Association, 4601 Pope Ave. through November 30, 2023 for composting!
1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins are thrown out each year once Halloween has passed. Most of them end up in landfills where they decompose, producing methane, and contributing to climate change. Instead of just trashing your pumpkin, repurpose it! Eat the seeds, make a soup or veggie stock, bake pumpkin bread, or even just compost it in your own backyard. Critters like pigs, chickens and squirrels love the tasty treat too. But it is best not to feed the wildlife as raccoons can quickly become a nuisance and it is healthier for them to forage for their natural food sources.
Total Organics Recycling has lent us their yellow roll carts, which they use around the region to collect organic food waste at grocery stores, schools, and restaurants, and they transport it to a nearby commercial composting facility. There, the pumpkins will be mixed into large standing static piles of branches, other garden debris and food scraps. They are 90% water which aids in the composting process as well as full of the plant growing nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium! The piles are aerated weekly and monitored for temperature and moisture for six months, after which, they are sifted into an amazing soil amendment for sale to gardeners, home owners and farmers called: COMPOST!
Before and After
Produce Stickers, Candles/Wax and Paint do not compost so it is always best to remove those before composting. No one wants plastic stickers or leftover candle wax in the soil with their tomato plants!
So between now and November 30th, bring your pumpkins (FREE of Paint and Wax) to our office parking lot at 4125 Humphrey St., 63116 or to North Newstead Association at 4601 Pope Ave., 63115.
- Look for the yellow roll carts in the far corner of the parking lot.
- Place your pumpkins in the roll carts and you are done!
Grant funding provided by:
