EDMONTON – Tossing that rotting Halloween pumpkin into your food scraps bin is “perfectly a decent, good thing to do,” says the City of Edmonton’s home compost program coordinator. But Rodney Al makes it clear there’s a better thing to do: bring it to Compost ‘S Cool.
A play on “compost is cool” and “compost school,” the city facility near Fort Edmonton Park offers free composting education and tools.
While the seasons are making the frigid turn from fall to winter, Al’s department considers it harvesting time for the Halloween decor left on front doorsteps.
“Compost ‘S Cool is here to encourage people and how people how to compost at home. So we’re looking for these pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns as a way for us to compost at the site,” Al told CTV News Edmonton.
“We’re also here to help people do the best they can with their pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. They can smash them on their own, or we will smash them for them, and then of course we are going to make a nice compost pile out of them.”
The pumpkin smash is a perennial event, but being held virtually this year.
Edmontonians are asked to take a picture of themselves dropping off their pumpkins at Compost ‘S Cool and post them to the facility’s Facebook page. Al’s team will make a pile out of all the jack-o’-lantern waste, and publish pictures of its decomposition progress to the social media page, too.
“We want to use this as a pumpkin smash kind of science experiment,” he said.
Pumpkins can be dropped off up until Nov. 7. There is a bin for pumpkins on site.
Of course, Al recognizes there are a number of other options to make use of Halloween pumpkins: “Eat what you can, and then do the best you possibly can with your food scraps.”
Pumpkins can also be dropped off at eco-stations for free.
