Carving and displaying pumpkins as "jack-o-lanterns" is a popular Halloween tradition. Likewise, pumpkins and other gourds are often displayed throughout the fall season as décor. If you'd like to avoid discarding your Halloween pumpkin in the garbage and thus increasing pressure on existing landfills, you can easily compost it. Learning how to compost a Halloween pumpkin is simple if you are already familiar with composting, and only requires a few special considerations.
1Remove any non-organic material from your Halloween pumpkin. If you have any non-organic material in your jack-o-lantern, such as aluminum foil or candle wax, you'll need to remove it as this type of material does not decompose.
- Candle wax is actually usually organic (and therefore will decompose eventually), but it is not an ideal component in a compost pile. The wax will break down incredibly slowly, and therefore will remain intact long after the remaining compost has become rich humus.
- As an alternative to discarding the wax, you can bury it underground, where it will slowly break down and condition the soil.
2Remove or destroy the pumpkin's seeds before composting. Pumpkin seeds are notoriously hardy, and can easily survive the entire composting process intact. Spreading your finished compost over your garden will then lead to unwanted pumpkins growing between your crops and competing for space.
- The most straightforward method for avoiding this problem is to remove the seeds entirely. They can either be discarded in the trash, or roasted and eaten.
- Another option that will allow you to compost the seeds is to destroy them first. For example, you can smash the seeds with a hammer, grind them in a food processor, or roast them until no longer viable. These damaged seeds can then be added to the compost without posing a risk of later germination.
- If destroying your pumpkin seeds, remember that the energy used running a food processor or oven might offset the ecological benefit of composting them in the first place.
3Break up the pumpkin if desired. After the seeds and any foreign materials are removed, the pumpkin can be added to your compost pile. In certain cases, though, you may want to break the pumpkin into smaller pieces first.
- For small-scale composting setups, such as an indoor worm bin, breaking up the pumpkin is a must. Note that in general, breaking up larger materials into small pieces will increase their surface area and lead to faster decomposition.
- You can break a pumpkin by striking it with something hard like a hammer, or by simply dropping or throwing it at the ground.
4Cover the pumpkin adequately once you have added it to your compost pile. A pumpkin represents a nitrogen-rich or "green" material, and therefore it should not be left exposed in your compost pile; doing so will attract unwanted insects. Keep the pumpkin and other "green" materials covered at all times with carbon-rich materials like sawdust, paper, or dried leaves.
- Remember that you can also compost the pulp and flesh removed from the pumpkin when you carve it.
Things You'll Need
- Food processor
- Carbon-rich materials