Nutritious Pumpkins and a Waste Problem at Halloween

Pumpkins are an enjoyable part of fall.
Image by pixel2013, public domain license

Carving a pumpkin is an essential component of Halloween for many people. Huge containers of the fruits are currently being unloaded in my local supermarkets or placed in a strategic place for customers to explore. Visiting a pumpkin patch to choose the perfect fruit is a fun event for children. A problem arises after Halloween, though. What do we do with all the pumpkins? For many people, the answer is to throw them in the garbage. This is a waste of food because they are nutritious fruits. It’s also bad for the planet when pumpkins collect in a landfill. They don’t decompose properly in this location and they produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. 

Pumpkins contain important nutrients. The fruit is a superb source of beta-carotene, which our body converts into vitamin A. Beta-carotene and other carotenoids give pumpkin flesh its rich orange colour. The fruit is also a good source of vitamin C, riboflavin (or vitamin B2), vitamin E, potassium, copper, manganese, and dietary fibre. It contains smaller but still beneficial levels of many other nutrients. It’s very low in fat. Like all foods from plants, it contains no cholesterol.

I sometimes use canned pumpkin as a replacement for fat in recipes. It works well and adds extra nutrients, though the levels of some of them are reduced by the heat of cooking. I also eat the canned fruit throughout the year as dessert. I like to buy unsweetened pumpkin puree and then if I choose to sweeten it use a method that I prefer. Pumpkin seeds are another tasty and nutritious treat. They are a great source of protein, magnesium, zinc, and other minerals. 

Halloween lanterns
Image by rescueram3, public domain license

Several varieties of squash are known as pumpkins. Most belong to the Cucurbita pepo species. The different cultivars of the species can look like vastly different vegetables. The ones grown for Halloween jack-o'-lanterns may not be the tastiest type. Buying a sweeter and tastier kind means that the flesh can be eaten while the rind is used for decoration. It's a shame that a nutritious fruit is discarded, but it would be an even greater shame if its disposal harmed the environment. Composting the rind and any unwanted flesh after Halloween would be better for the environment than throwing the fruit in the garbage. It’s recommended that the pumpkin is smashed before it’s composted at home.

In Metro Vancouver, where I live, food and yard waste can be placed in green bins provided by the city and are collected weekly for composting. My city’s recycling depot sells home composters for a reasonable price. Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Services says that more than thirty percent of the material sent to local landfills is compostable. They also say that the green bin system in the area is helping the problem, however.

Some communities hold pumpkin-smashing events after Halloween. I've never attended one, but they sound like fun. The remains of the fruit are often taken to a local compositing facility after the event. Sometimes people smash the pumpkins, but in one event in British Columbia the pumpkins are dropped from the top of fire ladders. Entertainment followed by composting sounds like a great combination.

Large pumpkins
Image by Capri23auto, public domain license

If a family has access to similar services or events to the ones described above or if Halloween pumpkins are accepted for composting in a nearby location, I think it’s important to take advantage of the situation (if this is possible). It’s hard to confirm some of the statistics that news sites publish, but there seems to be widespread agreement that many pumpkins are wasted at Halloween and end up in the garbage. The world’s pumpkins are probably not as serious a contributor to climate change as many other factors, but every effort to help the environment can be valuable.

References

• Nutrients in pumpkins from Self Nutrition Data
• Nutrients in pumpkin seeds (roasted and without salt) from Self Nutrition Data
• How to keep your Halloween pumpkins out of landfills from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
• Pumpkins are wasted at Halloween from Science Alert