It’s the day after Halloween or the start to Dia De Muertos and what to do with all those pumpkins? You can reuse or recycle those pumpkins very easily as it turns out.
- 45% of Americans expected to be carving pumpkins on Halloween
- $575.26 million will be spent on pumpkins in 2018
- 2017: Illinois is the largest producer of pumpkins harvesting about 3-5 times as many pumpkin acres as any of the other top States.
- 2017: farmers in the top 16 pumpkin-producing States harvested 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins, implying about 2 billion pounds harvested altogether in the United States.
- 1810.5 pounds the world’s largest jack-o-lantern was carved into the Guinness World Records
7 Ways to Recycle Pumpkins
1.) If you haven’t already saved the seeds, you can either roast them or eat them or plant them.
2.) Compost the whole pumpkin. Remove the seeds if you don’t want them regrowing. All you have to do is bury the whole pumpkin.
3.) Feed to the worms if you have.
4.) Cut the top off and use as a bird feeder. Fill with seeds.
5.) If you have wildlife in your backyard and feed them, cut up the pumpkin and let the animals feast.
6.) If you kept the innards make a pumpkin puree.
7.) Eat it, pickle it, roast it….
Just because Halloween is over.. doesn’t mean that that pumpkin has to go in the trash. Try keeping it out of the landfills by reusing as much as possible.
Resources
Earth 911 1o Ways to reuse Pumpkin
Recycle Nation How to Dispose of Pumpkins