Some time after Halloween, the question arises, what to do with the remaining pumpkins?

Some of them are cut out, others carved inside, still others just uncut decorated or were decorated with paints.

Disposal in a general waste container is not recommended. And that’s why – decomposition of the pumpkin together with other debris generates methane gas. What is worse than CO2.

In addition to making soups and making stews, baked cakes and cupcakes from pumpkins, such pumpkins can serve well in the garden or be a treat for wildlife.

There are really environmentally friendly ways to finally use the pumpkins already used for the holiday.

Here are some of them. Maybe someone will suit you:

• Dry the pumpkin seeds, peel them and season the dishes with the fried seeds;
• Unroasted and unpeeled seeds can be dried and sown again next spring. You will have a new pumpkin harvest for next year’s celebration!
• If the pumpkin has not been dyed or otherwise treated, it can be used to flavor dishes. And the excess pumpkin can be frozen and used next time. There are many recipes online, here are a few:

Pumpkin soup (it is especially delicious to eat served in coconut bowls😊)
Pumpkin cake

• You can make a bird feeder out of a small pumpkin – cut the pumpkin in half, add seeds to the birds, and hang the string on a tree branch or in a place where birds usually visit your yard;
• If there is a forest near you or you like to spend time in nature, you can leave some of the cut pumpkin in animal stores – for wild animals (squirrels, foxes, badgers or deer) it is a delicacy.
• If your pumpkin is not carved, you can make an outdoor pot for the plant. It will be enough to cut the top of the pumpkin, remove the seeds, fill the ground and plant a frost-resistant plant. Such a flowerpot will decorate your balcony or terrace for a few more weeks, and when planted in the soil, it will become a natural fertilizer for the surrounding plants.
• Just compost the pumpkin with other organic waste. Pumpkin up to 90% water, so when cut into pieces it will break down quickly. This is a much better way than throwing a pumpkin in the general waste. Because organic matter, such as pumpkin, decomposes under anaerobic landfill conditions, they emit methane, which is estimated to be about 16 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Let’s change habits together.