Every year  about 42% of people in the UK buy pumpkins  but  the flesh is eaten in only  33% of those pumpkins  that are carved to make lanterns. 18.000 tonnes of pumpkins are thrown  away with 25% of these being  thrown into the waste bin, 20% go onto the food waste collection, with  only 19% being  composted.

To encourage people to reduce their waste Stokes Wood allotments have held their annual  Pumpkin Rescue and Smash event to reduce the number being  sent to landfill where methane is produced during   decomposition. This year the event was more topical than usual as it coincided with COP26 where future methane reduction was being  promised.

There was a larger than expected response with  over  two hundred pumpkins being  donated by local schools, pubs  and individuals to be smashed  and composted on the allotment community composting plot. The  site was  opened to local families invited to smash the pumpkins  with  pumpkin pieces  being  layered into  four of our pallet bins and  eight   of our plastic home composting bins as well as a Hotbin. The resultant compost will be  used by Society members as a mulch on their plots.

In the interest of safety younger children where restricted to using wood smashing tools but this did not prevent them from splashing pumpkin over themselves, their parents and anything that did not move quickly enough. For the first time this year about eighty whole pumpkins were delivered mixed with those that had been  carved, so next year we will operate a separate “food”  stream for whole pumpkins that will offered to community fridges and food banks.

A downloadable copy of this years Pumpkin Smash Post is available at Pumpkin Rescue 2021. If you are on Facebook please share the Carry on Composting post 

Bring your  used pumpkin lanterns to smash and compost at

Stokeswood Allotment Compost Demonstration site

2b  Stokes Drive, Leicester, LE3 9BR

Saturday 13th November 10.30 - 12.30

continuing into the afternoon as required

(Other dates can be arranged by appointment)

Local Schools and Groups if you have pumpkins that require collection, or can act as a clooection point, email carryoncomposting1 @gmail.com

For more info      Pumpkin Rescue 2021

I started composting samples of three compostable bags  2 months ago. They samples have been stretched across a plastic frame and cold composted using a three chambered See-Through Composting Container. As the chambers do no have drainage holes it is difficult to control the moisture level and on occasions over the composting period the containers have been wetter than I would have liked. I future the contents will be removed regularly, moisten and remixed and then returned to the chambers.

At two months the bag material is starting to breakdown  on  on one of the disks (in the centre)  quite significantly as the picture that was on the bag and the material has disappeared . Photos taken earlier in the experiment can be seen by following the link http://www.carryoncomposting.com/416920209     and working down the page.

A new Reception bin has been bought into use At the Community Composting site at Stokes Wood Allotments, 2B Stokes Drive. Leicester, to try to stop customers putting waste in the working bins at random disrupting the composting process.

The original Reception bins were part of a bank of 5 bins. The new Reception bin is closer to the entrance and separate from the working bins. So far, the new system seems to be working.

Most of the waste this week  is runner bean plants with some pumpkin/marrow foliage both are easily cropped and form a tidy layer in the first working bin. I hope to fill this bin Friday and then turn it weekly for a month.

The layers will be chopped  garden runner beans and marrow plants  (from the reception bin) with layers of manure and soil following a traditional garden layering system  If most of the garden waste is relatively soft greens cardboard or shredded paper will be used to provide additional  browns.