Throwing out your Halloween pumpkin? Try this instead

Not sure what to do with your jack-o’-lantern after Halloween? There are several other ways to get rid of your pumpkins instead of throwing them out with the trash. 

Instead of sending them to your local landfill, consider composting your pumpkins in the garden, donating them, or leaving them as a snack for birds.

Like other vegetable scraps or grass clippings, pumpkins are high in nitrogen, making them great for composting. 

Before composting, don’t forget to remove any remaining seeds and cut off all of the decorative material, such as candle wax or paint. Slice the jack-o’-lantern into smaller pieces and add them to your compost pile. 

If your pumpkin has already started to get moldy, even better: the microorganisms are helping the composting process. 

If you don’t want to compost the pumpkin yourself, try donating it to a community garden. Local community gardens sometimes accept pumpkins and other food scraps to use in their compost piles. 

No community garden nearby? Local farms, zoos, or sanctuaries may also accept your pumpkin to use as food for the animals. To make things easier, the group Pumpkins for Pigs created a website that shows places that accept donations of pumpkins. 

As another option, the pumpkins can be used to feed the animals living nearby, such as birds. For example, the pumpkin seeds that have been carved out can be used as a treat for cardinals, sparrows, finches, and chickadees. 

“For the birders: some people will clean out the pumpkin seeds and toast them and feed them to the birds,” said Melissa Moran, director of community programs at The Nature Conservancy’s Indiana chapter. “If you do, don’t add seasoning or anything. You can toast them and put them out and some birds, like cardinals, like bigger seeds.