Millions of pumpkins are bought in the UK every Halloween, and many of them end up in the bin come November. Here are some ideas to get more use out of your pumpkins – and one common disposal method to avoid.
Using pumpkins as Halloween decorations is great fun, whether carving scary faces or displaying them whole. Millions of Brits purchase a pumpkin for spooky season every year. But when October is over, many pumpkins end up going somewhere even scarier… landfill.
Did you know that it can take over 20 years for a pumpkin to decompose fully in landfill? And all the while releasing harmful methane gas due to a lack of oxygen. The statistics are ghoulish.
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We’ve gathered together some better alternatives.
1. Compost them
Probably the easiest way to make sure your pumpkins don’t go to waste – drop them in the compost bin! Your soil will thank you for it.
It might be a good idea to chop the pumpkin into smaller pieces, just to speed along the decomposition process a little.
2. Get cooking
If you haven’t carved your pumpkin, it will most likely still be good to eat. There are loads of recipes you can find which use pumpkin, from the traditional pumpkin pie, soup or our pumpkin pasta bake.
And remember to save the pumpkin seeds too as these can be roasted for a nice snack!
3. Feed the chickens
If you keep chickens, pumpkin is a great treat for them. After carving, you can give the seeds and scraped-out flesh straight to them to appreciate. You can also give them the whole carved pumpkin when you’re done with it, though it’s recommended to only do this if the pumpkin was carved in the last day or two, while there’s been less time for mould and bacteria to grow.
4. Make a bird feeder
Other birds like pumpkin too! Cut off the bottom of your pumpkin to create a bowl shape, which you can fill with bird seed and hang in the garden with some strong string.
5. Save the seeds to grow your own patch!
If you bought a pumpkin this year, you could have a whole patch next year! Store some seeds somewhere cool and dry over winter ready to sow them in April.
One thing you shouldn’t do with leftover pumpkins
It’s common to see pumpkins left in woodland or green areas after Halloween, and while some wildlife enjoy this, pumpkins can make other animals, such as hedgehogs, pretty ill. Organisations such as Forestry England ask people not to dump their pumpkins in nature for this reason.
