Don’t Trash Your Pumpkin, Put It In The Green Cart!


You spent a lot of effort to pick, carve and turn your pumpkin into the perfect creation now turn your once glowing Halloween pumpkin and other vegetative fall decorations into compost and electricity. When you keep these vegetative items out of the landfill you reduce the generation of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is 25 times MORE harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.To ensure the best second life for these great fall decorations, please remove any materials such as candles, glow sticks, and other non-vegetive decorations.

What Can Go in the Green Cart


Pumpkins, Gourds, Squash, Real Leaves, Corn Stalks, Ears of Corn, Flowers, Straw or Hay

 

What Can’t Go in the Green Cart

  • Metal, Paper, Plastic, or Silk Versions of the Above –  Put in Trash
  • Candles – Put in Trash
  • Wreaths – Put in Trash
  • Garland – Put in Trash
  • Lights – Put in Trash

 

 

 

Additional Tips to Help Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle During This Fall Season

Roast your pumpkin seeds

  • Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
  • Toss cleaned seeds in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of melted butter.
  • Lay the seeds on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • Roast for about 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
  • While still hot, add salt and any other spice that sounds good to you.

Hold a costume exchange party for family, friends, and neighbors

Costumes are often worn only once. By trading costumes, last year’s outfit can get another wear and you can get something new. You can also donate unwanted costumes to local charities.

Keep it clean

Candy wrappers are a big source of litter around Halloween. Be sure to dispose of candy wrappers in trash bins where they won’t blow away and end up in the street.

Invest in decorations that are sustainable instead of single-use

  • Use washable fabric décors such as pumpkin-orange tablecloths, or cotton wall hangings or flags.
  • Use decorations from nature: multicolored leaves, a bowl of bright red pomegranates, or golden pears, ears of multicolored corn, squashes, and gourds, and interesting branches. After your finished they can all go in the green cart!
  • Check out a thrift store for a great find that is new to you.

Fun Facts

  • Over 1.5 billion pumpkins are produced every year.
  • Pumpkins are grown on every continent except Antarctica.
  • Pumpkins are full of rich nutrients such as zinc, iron & phosphorus.
  • The word pumpkin originated from the Greek word Pepon which means large melon.