Halloween sees people the world over getting creative with pumpkin carving and results in tons of wasted pumpkins if people don’t have the means, the time or the oomph to make good use of this great veg. The main rule is to make sure it doesn’t end up in landfill, where the rotting vegetable matter will release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
There are several other options, the easiest being to put it in the streetside food waste collection for the council. Other options would be to put it in a worm bin or Bokashi bin or on the garden compost heap. Local allotments will probably be happy to have it for their compost. Edible Landscapes in Finsbury Park say it is even OK to chop it up into smallish pieces and scatter it directly on the soil, because the worms will get it quite quickly.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t throw any food or food waste in the bin. It goes almost without saying that the circle of life, the growth, decomposition and renewal that we are part of doesn’t involve landfill.
