Post-Halloween, some smash pumpkins to divert them from landfills, cut methane

Anthony Uroni throws a pumpkin into a dumpster during a pumpkin smashing event at Scarce in Addison. — Photos: TRENT SPRAGUE/Chicago Tribune/TNS

AS PEOPLE rush to get rid of their jack-o’-lanterns in favour of Thanksgiving decorations, thousands of ornamental pumpkins will likely end up in landfills.

Lacking oxygen and unable to break down and return to the soil, these discarded gourds decompose and fill the atmosphere with methane – a greenhouse gas that is more than 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide in trapping heat.