How smashing pumpkins help save the environment

CHICAGO — Instead of being tossed in the trash, it was time to Hulk smash, as one Chicago organization offered an alternative way to dispose of Halloween pumpkins, helping reduce landfill waste in the process.

Plant Chicago held its annual pumpkin smash event in the Back of the Yards Saturday where the goal has always been to fight climate change, while also blowing off a little steam.

“We’re always amazed by how much aggression little kids seem to have,” said Eric Weber, Circular Economy Operations Specialist for Plant Chicago. “Like you hand them a baseball bat and they just go to town on the pumpkin.”

Weber said that when pumpkins are dumped in landfills, they can decompose and release methane gas, thus negatively contributing to climate change.

“Rather than filling city trash cans and landfills with organic material hoping to encourage people and introduce them to the idea of composting,” Weber said. “All of these pumpkins get sent to a composting facility where they get turned into finished compost and then soil.”

For more information on Plant Chicago and other initiatives they have going on, you can visit their website.