If one-quarter of the households in Metro Vancouver carve a Halloween pumpkin this year, that鈥檚 about 200,000 jack 鈥檕 lanterns. At the end of the day, that equates to 1,000 metric tonnes of shrivelled and sad-looking gourds.
Pumpkins tossed in the trash will end up rotting in the dump. There, they鈥檒l generate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Two thirds of the methane in the Metro Vancouver region comes from landfills.
Keeping all those pumpkins out of the dump eliminates about 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, so it鈥檚 worth the effort.
Metro Vancouver officials are urging residents to dispose of their pumpkins in compost bins where worms will get to work, providing nutrient-rich compost that that can be used to grow next year鈥檚 pumpkin.
They also suggest digging a shallow trench in vegetable or flower gardens and dropping in shredded pumpkin chunks.
Fill in the trench. As the pumpkin rots, nutrients will nourish the ground and act as an excellent, natural fertilizer.
Residents of 黑马磁力 Township can add their pumpkins to their yard trimmings container for regular curbside pickup. City residents may also include pumpkins in their green waste, as long as they don't exceed the 40-lb (18-kg) limit per household.
For tips on how to compost, visit , or . Check out the 鈥楩ood Recycling/Composting鈥� pages or, for a direct link, click here: .
These practices will go a long way to help Metro Vancouver reach its goal to divert 70 per cent of the region鈥檚 waste from landfills by 2015.
