Don’t Trash Your Halloween Pumpkin — Compost It! 

Did you know you can keep your Halloween pumpkin out of the landfill? Instead of tossing it in the trash, compost it — along with your other food and garden scraps — in a HOTBIN Composter! Pumpkins break down quickly in a HOTBIN, unlike in cold composters where seeds can survive and sprout in your finished compost.

According to the USDA Economic Research Service, farmers in the top six pumpkin-producing U.S. states harvested over 1.2 billion pounds of pumpkins in 2023, with Illinois alone producing about 690 million pounds. Economic Research Service+1 On average, U.S. pumpkin availability has reached about 6 pounds per person over the 2021-23 period. Economic Research Service+1 With that volume, a lot of pumpkins still wind up in landfills each year — releasing methane gas and contributing to climate change.

Let’s change that! By composting your pumpkins (rather than trashing them), you’ll help reduce landfill emissions while creating nutrient-rich compost to boost your soil.

If you don’t yet compost your food and garden scraps, this fall is the perfect time to start — with a HOTBIN Composter.

Learn more about recycling your food and garden waste at HOTBIN Composting.