The day after Halloween, the city of Houston will roll out its annual effort to keep pumpkins out of landfills where they would contribute to the production of harmful greenhouse gases.
The city’s Solid Waste Management Department recently announced the return of its pumpkin composting drop-off program Nov. 1-Dec. 6.
This is the fourth year the city has implemented the collection effort as more locations and extended hours have been added, according to a news release.
The program is an effort to cut down on waste after the jack-o-lantern-styled accoutrements from decorative experiments, the emptied shells from baking or the retired gourds from festivals and pumpkin patches fall out of season.
Used up pumpkins and the accompanying seeds and pulp usually end up in the trash in a landfill where it can become a toxic threat to the environment, said Kay McKeen, the executive director and founder of SCARCE, an Illinois-based environmental education organization that started its own Pumpkin Smash events, which collected residents’ expired pumpkins for compost.
The goal of programs like the Pumpkin Smash, held in November, is to educate people about the importance of composting, McKeen said.
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In 2023 the Houston program collected and composted more than 16,000 pounds of pumpkins and with more locations and longer hours of operation, the city is hoping to create more awareness of its importance.
Mark Wilfalk, director of the city’s solid waste management department, said the city hopes to pursue additional funding to build on and expand composting initiatives.
All pumpkin waste can be dropped at the following locations:
Reuse Warehouse, 9003 N. Main St., Houston, Tuesday – Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (open every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
Westpark Recycling Center, 5900 Westpark, Houston, Monday – Saturday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
See here for some background, here for more on the city’s program, and here for more on SCARCE, which includes a nice explainer of why you want to keep pumpkins out of the landfills. You might find some other local efforts for this – there’s a house in my neighborhood that collects post-Halloween pumpkins for composting as well, they’re already advertising for it. The pumpkins also make pretty good feed for various types of livestock, as I understand it. Point being, as with your Christmas tree, you have far better options than throwing them in the trash. Please take advantage of them.