Don't Throw Out Rotting Pumpkins, Add Them To Compost & Improve Your Soil's Quality

Halloween may generate a lot of waste, but jack-o-lanterns don't have to take up room in landfills when there are other ways to repurpose them. If you have decorative pumpkins that haven't been carved yet and aren't rotting, you can turn them into puree for pumpkin spice muffins or other culinary creations. Those that have started to decompose aren't safe to use for food anymore, so don't eat them — but that doesn't mean you should throw them out. Add your rotting pumpkins to the compost pile, and you'll have an amendment that will help improve your soil quality.

Mixing in compost is one of the best old-fashioned ways to boost garden soil, so it makes good sense to add your rotting pumpkins to your compost pile or bin instead of throwing them out with landfill trash. You should also consider that this is a great sustainability practice; this simple change could be highly impactful since 1 billion pounds of pumpkins end up in U.S. landfills after Halloween every year. The food waste from items like pumpkins gets sent to the landfill and takes up over a third of the space. The rotting organic matter that you throw into the trash ends up producing harmful greenhouse gases. This makes composting your pumpkins the more environmentally friendly option. If you don't have a compost pile yet, it's not too late to learn how to make your own DIY compost. However, don't add just any pumpkin or jack-o-lantern to your compost to improve your soil quality — there are some restrictions.

Don't use pumpkins with paint or glitter if you want healthy compost that will improve the quality of your soil. If you've decorated your pumpkins with either of those things, you'll have to either throw them away or remove the contaminated parts. Also, you should avoid adding a whole rotting pumpkin to your compost pile in one piece. Instead, chop it up into smaller pieces to help it biodegrade more quickly. In a compost pile, smaller pieces boost microbial action while larger chunks will actually slow it down.

Now that you've added your rotting pumpkin to your compost heap, consider learning a few winter-month composting tips that will help speed up the decomposition process. Since hot piles break down ingredients faster than cool ones, insulate your compost bin or pile for winter so that you can boost the breakdown of the ingredients and start improving the quality of your garden soil sooner. When the materials in your pile are fully broken down and look and smell like soil, this black gold is ready to use in your garden. 

If you don't have the ability to compost at home, you still shouldn't throw your rotting pumpkins out. Instead, ask a friend or family member if you can give them your rotting jack-o-lantern for their pile, or check with your municipality to see if they have any community composting programs. Some counties and cities even have yearly events to collect used pumpkins for composting.