No matter how old you are, one of the best parts about Halloween is admiring all the pumpkins. But one sustainability advocate shared a surprising fact about grocery store pumpkins that could reframe how you think about using this cheery decoration.
The scoop
"Before you buy pumpkins this year, you may want to hear this," begins a video posted by a member of Sustainability Matters (@sustainabilitymattersva), who sits in a chair with two store-bought pumpkins nearby.
@sustainabilitymattersva Be on the lookout for locally grown and (enjoyably) edible pumpkins this Halloween season🎃 Lots of the big orange pumpkins used for carving Jack-o-Lanters are grown specifically for that purpose and don't taste that great… meaning the vast majority of them end up in the landfill after serving solely as decoration. Once in the landfill, they can't decompose into the soil as they naturally would, and instead release methane, an extremely harmful greenhouse gas. You can avoid contributing to this waste issue by composting your pumpkin scraps and by buying pumpkins intended to be eaten! #pumpkins #halloween #ecofriendly #sustainabilitymatters #jackolantern #halloweendecorations ♬ original sound - Sustainability Matters
"Most of the pumpkins you find at grocery stores, or places like Walmart, are bred specifically to be carved," he shares. "This one that my family grabbed to carve literally has a sticker that says not intended for consumption."
He explains that because these pumpkins are more or less inedible, their scraps — whether from carving or simply sitting out as decoration — will likely end up in the landfill. And because getting swept into a landfill's enormous "garbage lasagna" prevents organic materials from decomposing into soil as they would in nature, they instead break down anaerobically. This is an issue because it releases methane, one of the most harmful and potent planet-warming gases.
Instead, the video host enthuses, "an easy sustainable switch you can make is ditching the grocery store pumpkins and buying some varieties intended to be eaten, which can still make great decorations."
Specifically, he suggests looking out for Cherokee Bush, Caspers, Cinderellas, and Fairy Tales.
How it's working
It only requires a small effort to source locally grown, edible varieties from farmers markets or nearby growers — but the impact on reducing food waste is enormous.
As the video explains, the U.S. alone is responsible for an average of 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins being thrown away after Halloween every year. That's a lot of methane being generated that could instead turn into nutritious compost or even snacks.
And so, as the video's host says, "Even though we did not grow these pumpkins and we are not necessarily creating the problem, we can be part of the solution."
What people are saying
Viewers were surprised by the revelation that most pumpkins are bred to be carved, not consumed.
"Didn't realize this!" one person wrote.
Another shared their current efforts to decorate as sustainably as possible by composting. "When I carve pumpkins, the guts that come from mine and my family's pumpkins go in the backyard," they wrote. "And when the rest of the pumpkin is done, [we] put that in the woods or in the backyard."
And if you've already bought your pumpkins this year, one person suggested another way to keep them from going to the landfill.
"You can donate pumpkins to farms after Halloween," they suggested. "Animals love to eat them."
But if you still have time to source edible pumpkins, as the video suggests, you'll get a decoration — and a snack! — for the price of one. There's nothing scary about that!
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