Smashing Pumpkins In The Name Of Sustainability

The post-Halloween tradition is an easy, impactful way to divert waste from landfills

By Jefferey Spivey

Perhaps there’s no greater symbol of Halloween—and to a greater extent, the fall season—than pumpkins. Intricately carved or plain, stand-alone décor or part of a larger motif, pumpkin fever is hard to escape. 

Anoka Pumpkin Smash 

Once the streets are clear of trick-or-treaters, however, many of these pumpkins are unceremoniously tossed in the garbage, wasting a valuable resource and contributing to environmental harm. Enter pumpkin smashes. Positioned as a fun, easy, and impactful way to dispose of unwanted pumpkins, these events ensure that used pumpkins avoid the trash bin and fulfill their unlimited potential.

More Than Smashing Pumpkins

Undoubtedly, many participants are drawn to pumpkin-smash events by the simple promise of the title.

“I’ll tell you, the number of parents who come are just like, ‘Oh, yeah, my kid will do it,’ and then by the end of it, they’re all wailing away, and they’re talking about how therapeutic it is,” says Lynne Serpe, Founder of Compost NOW, a New Orleans-based, food-waste collection program that runs pumpkin smashes throughout the city.

There’s an emotional release that comes from throwing a pumpkin to the ground, stomping on it, smashing it to bits with a bat or a hammer, catapulting it, or even crushing it with a custom-made device like St. Cloud Parks and Recreation’s “Gallagher the Pumpkin Smasher.” Named after the comedian who often smashed watermelons as part of his act, “Gallagher the Pumpkin Smasher” resembles a construction-site trebuchet and is placed in front of a target.

“We had it be triggered by pulling a string,” says Gabriel Almonte, the department’s Natural Resources Supervisor. “We would let the kids or whoever pull the string, and they [would] get to slowly see their pumpkins get destroyed.”

But beyond the catharsis and thrill of the actual smashing, pumpkin smashes serve as an entryway to sustainability, conservation, and environmental activism.

Individual events vary in their approaches. In Naperville, Ill., for example, attendees can drive down one of three designated lanes at the municipality’s garden plots and either offload their pumpkins for others to smash or stay and do the smashing themselves. At Compost NOW’s events, smashers go to heavily tarped outdoor spaces at local libraries. Ultimately, pumpkin smashes follow a similar approach. On the first Saturday after Halloween, attendees arrive with their pumpkins, choose a preferred smashing method, and let loose until the whole pumpkin is nothing more than several unrecognizable pieces. 

The pieces are then spread and tilled directly into the soil (as in St. Cloud and Naperville) or collected in an industrial roll-off dumpster and transported to a compost facility. It’s the composting that brings to light the impact of the smashes.

“It’s probably one of the most important things any of us can do because it impacts soil, water, and air,” says SCARCE Founder and Executive Director Kay McKeen. For 32 years, Illinois-based SCARCE has rescued various resources—books, clean water, clean air, healthy soil—and educated the public about ways members can address those scarcities in their communities. Pumpkin smashes perfectly align with the not-for-profit’s mission. Pumpkins are among the world’s most nutrient-dense foods, composed of 90 to 92 percent water; composting them puts a wealth of nutrients and clean water back into local soil. Gathering and composting pumpkins also diverts them from landfills, where they could possibly contribute to methane production, which is a direct—and potent—contributor to climate change. Just by keeping this one food out of garbage cans (and thus landfills), everyday people are making possible cleaner soil, water, and air—a lot more than simply smashing pumpkins.

 
 

Since kicking off the events in 2014 in partnership with local park districts, SCARCE has taken the lead on pumpkin smashes, locally and nationally, and its website serves as a hub for pumpkin smashes around the country. Municipalities can access resources, including artwork and event ideas. Those organizations or park districts hosting events can share the details with SCARCE and have them added to a comprehensive map. Visitors can type in their ZIP code and find the nearest pumpkin smash.

More than just an aggregator of the year’s pumpkin-smash events, SCARCE also tracks participants’ total environmental impact. From those who reported results in 2021 (roughly 81 cities, towns, or municipalities), an estimated 780 tons of pumpkins were diverted from landfills, which translates to 86,422 gallons of water saved and 586.56 tons of CO2 reduced or avoided. The outcomes reach far and wide, even without factoring in participants who didn’t report their results and the events that aren’t registered with SCARCE.

Part of what’s driving such significant effects is an enthusiastic community response—no matter the location.

An Easy Way To Get Involved

For many municipalities, pumpkin smashes provide a way to make the act of composting and the concept of sustainability more accessible.

“This is a very, very easy way that you can contribute and feel good about making a contribution,” says Angelique Harshman, Nature Center Manager at Naperville Park District. “That’s what we want to share with people—you can make a difference doing things like this.”

Anoka Pumpkin Smash 

McKeen and Harshman, who learned of pumpkin smashes from McKeen and SCARCE, also see the events as culturally important for Illinois residents. The state harvests the largest share of pumpkin acreage in America and is home to the country’s largest pumpkin-processing plant (Nestle Libby’s) in Morton. Besides the environmental benefits, there’s a sense of local pride in conserving pumpkins.

At Compost NOW, composting is a year-round effort with less flash and excitement than at a pumpkin smash. The one-day events offer unbeatable promotion for the greater cause.

“It’s this great outreach opportunity,” Serpe says. “People have a blast, and while they’re there, they learn more about composting because we explain to them what they’re doing.”

This ease of understanding drives great turnout at events. Harshman said Naperville’s 2021 event brought in 22,000 pounds of pumpkins, up from 14,000 the previous year. Serpe noted that, while the poundage didn’t increase in 2021, the awareness, media coverage, and participation did. And other municipalities reported similarly increased engagement once the events took hold.

“The more people that participate, the more the message will spread,” says Pam Bowman, Communications Manager for the City of Anoka, Minn. Known as the Halloween Capital of the World, Anoka provides the perfect backdrop for a pumpkin-themed, waste-reduction event, and each year’s success contributes to the next’s. The event’s poundage is reported to Anoka County, which uses those results to deploy funding in support of future smashes.

Community members have also become creative in collecting and transporting pumpkins, with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, co-workers, and churches gathering the pumpkins and bringing them to events on behalf of larger groups.

Additionally, solid turnout and community interest can open the door to citywide compost efforts. For example, in Darien, Ill., McKeen says that, after successful pumpkin smashes, the town has added food-scrap composting pickup at the curb.

It seems pumpkin smashes only continue to grow and attract fanfare with each passing year. For those park districts or municipalities looking to start their own, there’s more to consider than grabbing a few bats and tarps.

 
 

The Logistics Behind The Smashing

Based on available resources, funding, manpower, and anticipated turnout, not every pumpkin smash will be the same. However, newcomers should keep a few elements in mind as planning gets underway.

Safety is key. Considering the amount of swinging and smashing, it’s important for attendees to sign waivers and to age-restrict certain portions of the event. Almonte keeps this event element green with electronic waivers. Concerning the kids, Serpe keeps them engaged by having them help with seed harvesting.

Compost Now

“We have these stations where we just have big buckets of water, and we basically throw a bunch of pumpkin guts in there. We swirl it around, and we pull out the pumpkin seeds,” she said. “This is something the little kids really love.”

The seeds can then be roasted and served or used to grow more pumpkins, which extends the benefits of the smashes to feeding people. 

It’s also crucial to think about staffing needs. Smaller events—like Almonte’s—may only require a few volunteers, while others—like Harshman’s—may need a few dozen. The volunteers may have a host of duties, from cleaning pumpkin parts off tarps and helping attendees with smashing to weighing pumpkins and counting the number of cars or families.

Location matters, too. Event organizers will need to decide if they’ll smash pumpkins directly into the soil or smash at another location and hire a hauler to transport the pumpkin parts to a composting facility. 

McKeen also warns that attendees may need a little education before bringing over their pumpkins. “You want to make sure in your publicity you say no contaminants, so no candles should be in the pumpkins. No plastic stickers, no plastic ears that you decorate it with,” she says. “We say it’s just the pumpkin.”

But logistics and deeper environmental impact aside, pumpkin smashes are rooted in excitement and action, which everyone can engage in without intimidation.

“I wish I had done this sooner,” Almonte says. “When it comes to sustainability, in order to incorporate it in everybody’s lives, you have to try to make it convenient, and not just convenient, you also have to make it fun. If a kid could enjoy themselves while helping out the environment, then families are going to be more encouraged to do so.”


Jefferey Spivey is a writer based in Urbandale, Iowa. Reach him at jeffereyspivey@gmail.com.

 
 
Previous
Previous

2022 Taking Root Scholarships Awarded

Next
Next

Find What You’re Looking For