| Key Takeaways |
|---|
| • Feed your soil: Old pumpkins, even rotting ones, break down into nutrients for garden beds once you remove candles and wax, but painted pumpkins should stay out of compost and soil. • Save the seeds: Pumpkin seeds can be roasted for a snack or dried and stored for planting next spring. • Reuse before you toss: Uncarved, unpainted pumpkins can last 1 to 6 months as Thanksgiving decor or become bird feeders and planters. |
Halloween has come and gone, but the leftover pumpkins remain. Instead of tossing them, recycle your Halloween pumpkins: Turn them into fresh decor, roast the seeds, bake with the flesh, feed the birds, or compost them for next year’s garden.
Whether yours is still whole, carved, painted, or starting to rot, here are 9 ways to keep it out of the landfill.
Need a hand with the rest of your fall cleanup? Local Lawn Love leaf removal pros can help.
9 ways to recycle Halloween pumpkins
The best method depends on your pumpkin’s condition:
- Uncarved and unpainted: Every method below works, from Thanksgiving decor and puree to zoo donations.
- Carved: Turn it into a bird feeder, planter, or compost while it’s still firm.
- Painted: Keep it as decor, since paint makes it unsafe for compost, garden soil, and animals.
- Soft or rotting: Smash it, bury it, or compost it.
1. Repurpose for Thanksgiving decorations
Uncarved pumpkins can stay right where they are as Thanksgiving decorations, since whole pumpkins can last 1 to 6 months when protected from harsh weather. Bring them indoors before a hard frost, which shortens their shelf life. To repurpose your Halloween pumpkins for Thanksgiving:
- Rearrange them: Give them a new grouping on your porch, steps, or mantel.
- Build a centerpiece: Pair them with fall foliage and candles on your dining table.
- Refresh the look: Get crafty with paint or sequins, but painted pumpkins can’t be eaten, composted, or donated afterward.
2. Save the seeds for planting
Saving the seeds when you gut your pumpkin lets you grow your own pumpkins for next year’s Halloween. Many carving pumpkins are hybrids, so plants grown from saved seeds may look different from the parent pumpkin. To prepare your pumpkin seeds for planting:
- Rinse the seeds and remove all the pulp: Leftover pulp slows drying and can cause the seeds to rot.
- Spread them out to dry: Lay the seeds in a single layer on a kitchen towel or a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Skip paper towels, since sticky seeds cling to them.
- Dry them for three to four weeks: Keep the seeds in a cool, dry place, flip them often for the first few days, and toss any that grow mold.
- Store them in a brown bag or envelope: Keep them there until planting time.
3. Save the seeds for eating
Pumpkin seeds make a crunchy snack, salad topper, or muffin mix-in. Prep them as you would for planting, rinsing off all the pulp, but just pat them dry with a kitchen towel instead of drying them for weeks.
Ways to eat your pumpkin seeds:
- Roasted: Toss the seeds in vegetable, olive, or coconut oil, then season them with salt, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, or chili powder. Spread them in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet. Roast them in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes, flipping every few minutes, until they smell nutty.
- As a salad topper: Roast them first, either alone or with another topping you like, such as sunflower seeds.
- In muffins: Skip the roasting step and add the seeds whole, or grind them in a food processor.
4. Pumpkin puree
Small, uncarved pie pumpkins make the best puree, since they’re bred for baking rather than carving. An uncarved carving pumpkin is edible too, but its watery, stringy flesh suits soup or chili better than pie. Skip carved jack-o’-lanterns and any pumpkin that has softened or grown mold outdoors.
To make pumpkin puree:
- Halve it: Slice the pumpkin in half from top to bottom.
- Scoop it out: Remove the seeds and pulp.
- Roast it: Cover each half with foil and bake it foil side up in a 350-degree oven for about one hour, or until tender.
- Blend it: Scoop the flesh into a blender, puree it, and strain out any stringy pieces.
- Freeze the extras: Store the puree in freezer-safe bags until you’re ready to use it.
5. Bake some pumpkin treats
Homemade pumpkin puree works in recipes from breakfast to dessert. Ideas for using pumpkin puree:
| Meal | Pumpkin puree ideas |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | Oatmeal, waffles, pancakes, and muffins |
| Baked goods and desserts | Bread, chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin pies |
| Savory dishes | Soup, chili, and ravioli |
| Spreads and drinks | Pumpkin butter and pumpkin spice lattes |
6. Construct a bird feeder
A gutted pumpkin shell makes an easy bird feeder for your yard. With an uncarved pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and pulp, then halve it for a bowl shape or cut a hole in its side so birds have room to feed.
A carved pumpkin also works if it isn’t rotting and has no charred marks or candle wax. Cut away the carved section to leave just a bowl at the bottom.
To construct a bird feeder with a pumpkin:
- Pick a spot: Decide where you want to place your pumpkin bird feeder.
- Hang it, if you like: Poke four holes in the sides, then run small sticks through them or tie string or twine directly to the pumpkin.
- Or set it down: Place it on your deck, in your garden, or anywhere in your yard. You can still add sticks as a perch.
- Fill it with birdseed: Then sit back and enjoy the benefits of attracting birds to your yard.
- Bring it in at night: This keeps raccoons and other critters from feasting on it.
7. Make a pumpkin planter
A pumpkin that’s still firm makes a seasonal planter for your porch. For a carved one, cut away the face to leave a bowl that holds soil. To make a pumpkin planter:
- Open it up: Cut off the top and scoop out the seeds and pulp.
- Add drainage: Poke a few small holes in the bottom so water can escape.
- Fill and plant: Add potting soil and your flowers of choice, such as mums or pansies.
Once the pumpkin starts to soften, plant the whole thing, flowers and all, in a garden bed. The pumpkin breaks down around the roots.
“Kitchen waste can be applied in the basins of fruit trees after removing the meat items, tins, and plastic. It will decompose in basins around the trees,” says Girish Kumar Panicker, Ph.D., of Alcorn State University’s College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences in Lorman, Mississippi.
8. Check with your local zoo or farm
- Some zoos and farms accept uncarved, unpainted pumpkins as treats for their animals. Call ahead before loading up your car to make sure they’re accepting pumpkin donations.
- If you or a neighbor keep backyard chickens, they’ll happily peck at chunks of fresh, unpainted pumpkin.
9. Smash them for fun and compost
Smashing jack-o’-lanterns is a fun way to end Halloween, and it feeds your soil, too. As pumpkins break down, their water and nutrients act as a natural fertilizer.
Recycling them this way also keeps them out of landfills, where food waste accounts for an estimated 58 percent of the methane landfills release into the air.
Ways to put smashed pumpkins to work:
- Around the yard: Smash pumpkins on bare soil or under shrubs, not on your lawn, where heavy piles can smother the grass.
- In a garden bed: Bury the pieces in a garden box where you want pumpkins to grow next spring.
- In the compost: Add smashed pieces rather than whole pumpkins to your composting bin, and scoop out the seeds first unless you want pumpkin sprouts.
Note: Remove candles and wax before composting a jack-o’-lantern.
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FAQs
No, because stringy, fibrous pumpkin pulp can wrap around a garbage disposal’s grinding parts or thicken and clog your drain. Scrape the scraps into your compost bin instead, where the same pulp that jams pipes breaks down into nutrients for your garden soil.
You can reuse a pumpkin treated with WD-40, hairspray, or clear sealant only as decor, since those products don’t belong in your soil or an animal’s stomach. Keep treated pumpkins out of compost piles, garden beds, bird feeders, and donation bins, and bag them for the trash once they start to soften.
Many cities accept plain pumpkins in curbside yard waste or food scrap bins, but rules vary, so check your local waste program’s website before tossing one in. Some communities also host pumpkin drop-off events after Halloween that send pumpkins to large-scale compost sites.
It’s best not to, because whole pumpkins left in the yard can draw deer, raccoons, squirrels, and rodents that stick around to nibble on shrubs and garden plants. A sudden pumpkin feast can also upset wild animals’ digestion, so break smashed pumpkins into small pieces that decompose quickly.
Read more:
How to Keep Raccoons Out of Your Yard
Don’t throw away your Halloween pumpkins
Pumpkins aren’t the only fall chore waiting in your yard. If leaves are piling up, let local Lawn Love pro take care of them for you so you can enjoy the season.
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Main Image: Halloween pumpkins. Image Credit: rawpixel / rawpixel
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