Every year, Americans purchase tens of millions of decorative pumpkins to carve, paint, and display for Halloween. Discarding these pumpkins can have significant environmental impacts due to the methane emissions released from them. So, how should we handle them?
Carved pumpkins with spooky faces illuminated by candles inside have become a symbol of the Halloween festival.
Every year, on the night of October 31st to the early morning of November 1st, the Halloween festival takes place. It is believed that the souls of the deceased return to visit their homes and leave messages in dreams.
As a result, around this time, many people hang pumpkin lanterns in front of their homes, carving human faces in the hopes that the souls and spirits will have light to find their way and not disturb the homeowners.
Americans buy millions of pumpkins for Halloween decoration.
How do pumpkin emissions seriously impact the environment?
According to data from the Department of Agriculture (in 2022), the United States harvested about 2 billion pounds of pumpkins for sale as whole fruits (not processed, canned, or made into pies or breads).
If these pumpkins end up in landfills, they could emit approximately 7,500 tons of methane, according to Robert Czubaszek, an environmental scientist at Bialystok University of Technology in Poland. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this is the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from over 45,000 cars.
However, there are better ways to dispose of pumpkin lanterns this year. You can compost them, crush them, or feed them to farm animals, as long as they are not treated with bleach or painted like in previous years.
Composting Pumpkins
If you have a yard or garden, you can compost pumpkins to enrich the soil for planting in the spring because composted pumpkins, broken down by oxygen-loving bacteria, emit very little methane. Higher emissions occur when pumpkins are sealed without oxygen inside landfills, where a different type of bacteria digests food and produces methane.
According to Beverly Jaszczurowski, the Executive Director of Scarce, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Illinois, pumpkins are about 90% water, so they decompose very quickly. Good organic compost depends on a mix of wet and dry ingredients, making water-rich pumpkins a great companion for the crispy autumn leaves that many people compost at this time of year.
To speed up the process, you can cut the pumpkins into pieces or crush them with a mallet. It is advisable to remove the seeds before composting, or you may find a pumpkin patch growing in the garden, and also remove any decorations like googly eyes or wax remnants from melted candles as they are not biodegradable.
After Halloween, pumpkins can be used as animal feed.
Can Pumpkins Be Animal Feed?
Giraffes, pigs… are some of the animals that enjoy pumpkins at farms.
After each Halloween, some zoos collect pumpkins and feed them to animals such as giraffes and elephants. Farmers also gather pumpkins to feed chickens, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs.
The nonprofit organization Pumpkins for Pigs connects people with farms and animal sanctuaries at 600 locations in the United States and Canada. You can check their website to find the nearest location or sign up to receive donated pumpkins, arranging a pickup in your area.
For the health of the animals, the organization requests that no pumpkins with acrylic paint, glitter, or other inedible decorations be donated. Water-based paint, glue, and adhesive can be accepted.
“Some people actually use Clorox to preserve carved pumpkins,” said Jennifer Seifert, founder of Pumpkins for Pigs, noting that this practice can be toxic; vinegar can be used as a substitute instead.
