Reuse & Recycle

What is the Pumpkin Smash?

The Pumpkin Smash is an annual effort by communities to divert pumpkins from landfills by providing locations for residents to drop-off jack-o-lanterns to be composted. It is held each year the Saturday after Halloween. Don’t Trash it, Smash it!

SCARCE and the cities of Wheaton and Elmhurst hosted the first pumpkin collections in 2014, diverting over 9.31 tons of pumpkins from landfills and helping to improve composting laws in Illinois. By 2022, the Pumpkin Smash grew to over 76 sites across the state and a few more around the country.

Why Keep Pumpkins Out of the Landfill?

Composting is nature’s way of recycling with many benefits:

Avoids landfill greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing organics (currently, landfills are the 3rd largest producers of methane in the U.S.!)
Produces a useful, nutrient-dense soil amendment
Pumpkins are 90% water which is great for our soil, not so good in our landfills

Since 2014 the Pumpkin Smash has…

Composted over 1012.40 tons of pumpkins
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 751.88 tons of CO_2e
Diverted 217,286.62 gallons of water from landfills

Help Compost More Pumpkins - Get Involved

Host a Pumpkin Smash

Host a Pumpkin Smash in your town to help your neighbors green their Halloween. Download our guide below.

Check out our guide to hosting your own Pumpkin Smash and sample fliers. Please note: it is specific to hosting in Illinois but similar procedures can be followed in most places.
Download the Guide

Spread the Word!

Anyone can help spread the word that pumpkins should not go into the garbage. Below are flyers and tools that make it easy for you.

Print a flyer, and post it in your school, church, library, or any community bulletin board.
Print Trick-or-Treat fliers, and hand out fliers with your candy.
Share this page with your friends, business associates, and municipal leaders using email, facebook, or your favorite social media.

Flyers
Our fliers are fillable forms so you can simply type in your location details. We’ve also provided space at the bottom on the letter and poster size to add logos or acknowledgements. To save fliers after adding your information, print to PDF. View a sample flier filled out.

Letter Size Fillable Flier

11×17 Fillable Poster

Trick-or-treat cards – fillable

More Resources

Pumpkin Smash word search – English/Spanish

Calendar

View all of our upcoming activities on our calendar.

View Calendar

Register

View all open registrations for our activities.

View Registrations

Read About SCARCE's Recycling Initiatives

Learn About SCARCE’s Recycling Programs, Tips, Tricks and More!

ABC's

W is for Wood

Nov 29 2023

ABC's

V is for Vacuums & Vehicles

Oct 30 2023

ABC's

U – Utensils, Unicorns and Umbrellas: What to do with the Unusual?

Sep 29 2023

Are You Ready To Do Your Part?

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Together, we can help more people discover how easy it can be to make a meaningful difference for our kids, for our environment, for our future…and often for all three at once.

Reuse & Recycle

Pumpkin Smash

Since 2014 the Pumpkin Smash has…

Composted over 1012.40 tons of pumpkins

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 751.88 tons of CO2e

Diverted 217,286.62 gallons of water from landfills

Calendar

Register

Read About SCARCE's Recycling Initiatives

Donate to SCARCE

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 751.88 tons of CO_2e

Donate to
SCARCE