Above / No matter how your pumpkin greets your Trick or Treaters, don’t let your waste haunt you … Put the nutrients back in the ground, not in a landfill.
(The Naperville Park District hosted a Pumpkin Smashing event on Nov. 2, 2019, at the Garden Plots.)
Residents are encouraged to bring their leftover Halloween pumpkins to the Naperville Recycling Center on Sat., Nov. 7, 2015, to participate in a DuPage county-wide pumpkin recycling event organized by School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education (SCARCE).
Pumpkins must be free of candles, stickers and other decorative add-ons and may be dropped off between 9AM and noon at the 180 Fort Hill Drive facility.
Above / For the first time, pumpkins in all greetings, shapes and sizes will be collected for composting at Naperville’s Recycling Center from 9AM to Noon on Nov. 7.
All of the recycled pumpkins will be brought to Waste Management’s composting facility to be weighed and processed. Last year, SCARCE collected 9.31 tons of pumpkins at three locations. Twelve locations, including Naperville, have signed up to collect pumpkins for composting this year.
“Environmental sustainability is really important to us in Naperville, and we’re happy to join this county-wide initiative,” said Dick Dublinski, Director of Public Works. “This is a really simple thing that we can all do to keep tens of thousands of pounds of pumpkins out of the landfill and put their nutrients back into the earth through composting.”
Sign up to receive more information via email about the City of Naperville’s projects and initiatives at www.naperville.il.us/enews.aspx. To sign up for the City’s notification system Naper Notify and receive important emergency and community information via a phone call, text message, email or smart phone app, visit www.napernotify.com.
Above / After Halloween, Jack O’ Lanterns (Note their Irish heritage!) are perfect for recycling. Help put nutrients into compost piles to enrich the soil so green plants will grow.
Editor’s Note / According to the Natural Awakenings website, SCARCE saved landfills by hosting the first pumpkin recycling collection event in 2014 at DuPage County sites in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton and Elmhurst.
“Composed of 90 percent water, pumpkins are full of nutrients that are good for the soil. Eighty-five percent of pumpkins processed in the United States are grown in Illinois, so composting them locally returns the valuable water and nutrients to the soil in our own region. SCARCE’s mission is to inspire people through education to preserve and care for the Earth’s natural resources while working to build sustainable communities.”
This initiative is a good way to teach youngsters about the value of recycling.
One more thing about pumpkins in case you missed it… In mid-August Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed legislation passed by the General Assembly to pump up the prestige of pumpkin pie, a Thanksgiving favorite. From now on, pumpkin pie will be known as the official state pie of Illinois, recognizing that 85 percent of consumed pumpkins in the United States are grown in the Land of Lincoln.
P.S. Alert! Perhaps residents with pick up trucks in various neighborhoods could volunteer to serve as a more local drop off location, then deliver the Jack O’Lanterns to Fort Hill. (Edited)
P.S.S. Update on Nov. 6, 2015! PN is happy to note this 2015 Jack O’Lantern was the 20th pumpkin put into the recycling container for the SCARCE compost project at 9:10AM Sat., Nov. 6. The collection continues until 12PM.
