Families wondering what to do with jack-o-lanterns past their prime can dispose of their pumpkins at “pumpkin smashes” happening around Chicagoland this weekend.
Lincolnwood Public Works Director Nadim Badran is preparing for Lincolnwood’s first-ever pumpkin disposal event and said the environmental benefits of smashing no-longer-wanted gourds was the main reason the village is hosting the event.
“The amount of pumpkins that make their way to the landfill takes up space, but there’s also a lot of gases emitted… in the landfills,” Badran said.
Once smashed, the orange orbs will become compost. Pumpkins ready to meet their end should not contain any candles or glow sticks and should have all decorations like googly eyes, stickers, yarn and ribbons removed. It’s OK if the pumpkins have been painted.
Recycling and environmental advocacy organization SCARCE is the force behind many of the pumpkin smashes taking place across Illinois, which have grown in popularity over almost a decade.
SCARCE Chief Operating Officer Beverly Jaszczurowski said the organization began sponsoring seven pumpkin smashes in 2014. This year, she said, 68 communities have registered pumpkin smashes with SCARCE.
“It’s fun. It’s easy. Everybody has a pumpkin,” Jaszczurowski said. “And I think people are really starting to understand the importance of composting.”
There are a range of modes of destruction communities might use to compost their pumpkins, Jaszczurowski said, from dumping loads of pumpkins from trucks to throwing the gourds at a bulls-eye in a dumpster to rolling them down hills to smashing them with baseball bats.
“There’s a group in Itasca that’s doing a catapult,” she said.
Kids seem to get a real kick out of the permitted wreckage, she added.
“Kids really love throwing things in general and watching them break in general,” she said. “So throwing your pumpkin into the dumpster is pretty exciting when it just breaks apart. A little gross and oozy.”
And then there are the environmental benefits, she added. Pumpkins are mostly water and Jaszczurowski said in a state that produces as many pumpkins as Illinois, making sure that the nutrients and water in old pumpkins make it back into the earth is critically important.
“If you put [a pumpkin] into the landfill, you can’t get that water back,” Jaszczurowski said.
Suburbanites who want to give their gourds a good end can look up pumpkin smashes near them on SCARCE’s website, Jaszczurowski added.
Here’s where to smash, bash and trash your pumpkin in the north-central suburbs this weekend.
Skokie
Nov. 6, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Oakton Street and Floral Avenue, across the street from the Skokie Farmers’ Market.
Park Ridge
Nov. 5. 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Centennial Park’s Sled Hill. Participants should register in advance on the Park Ridge Park District website to roll pumpkins down the hill.
Morton Grove
Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Harrer Park, 6250 West Dempster Street. Participants may drop their pumpkins at Park View School on Lake Street and then watch Public Works raise the gourds up high in a truck, then fall and crash into a compost bin. More information is available on the Morton Grove village website
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.Lincolnwood
Nov. 5, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Lincolnwood Public Works, 7001 North Lawndale Avenue. Residents can find out more information by calling 847-675-0888 or emailing [email protected].
Northbrook
Nov. 6, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Northbrook Court parking lot. Games, recycling information and refreshments will be available. More information is available on the Village of Northbrook’s website.
Evanston
Nov. 5, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Lorraine Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., Evanston.