Pumpkin Smash and Halloween 2021

Halloween need not be the Festival of Food waste

It is estimated that in the UK up to four million pumpkins are brought to carve and display over Halloween with the edible flesh of these pumpkins being discarded as waste and ending up with most of the lanterns in landfill. This produces an additional 18,000 tons of landfill waste directly attributable to the Halloween festivities. This, according to the environmental charity Hubbub, is equivalent to 360 million portions of pumpkin pie.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that 1.91 billion pounds of pumpkins where grown in the USA in 2014 most of which, as in the UK, where used for carving and then thrown away,

 Much of this waste is due to people being unaware of the versatility of pumpkin flesh as a food or not realising that the fresh discarded when carving the pumpkin can be eaten. It is calculated that in the UK only 33% cook the fresh of the pumpkins they carve out this will leave 12.8 million pumpkins  uneaten this Halloween.

On this basis, farmers are growing acres of food just for it to be thrown away. Families  and all food fanatics can all help reduce waste at Halloween by taking part in, or organising   Covid-19 compliant, Pumpkin Rescue activities.

Although we are limited in what we can do this year community groups, local authorities, Environmental and  Food Groups, Allotment Societies, Schools can also organise Covid compliant activities for their members at home or one the net.

Carve it,  Cook it, Eat it, Compost it 

Join us in reducing pumpkin waste while celebrating Halloween

• Hold a biggest pumpkin competition and donate the pumpkins to a local hospital, community fridge etc. after the event  This could be on the allotment, school or a local garden centre. Allotment Societies in cities or towns could cooperate and hold a city-wide competition.
•  Get creative and carve your pumpkin at home photograph  the pumpkin and carvers at home, or school before sending the photographs to us to include on our carryoncomposting.com website and or post it on the Carry on Composting and NAS  Composting  Facebook page . (Email carryoncomposting1@gmail.com).  Encourage carvers to cook the flesh from the pumpkins
•  Provide pumpkin recipes and cooking advice to friends, community groups, schools, and clubs.
•   Have a Smashing time.    Compost the remains of your carved pumpkin. Join  the   Pumpkin Smash at Stokes Wood  Allotment Compost Demonstration Site  Leicester  In 2019 we had over 100 pumpkins to smash and compost. Join us in 2021 for a smash early in November

Composting Pumpkins      Pumpkin Rescue 2021