Halloween may be over, but don’t toss your jack-o’-lanterns in the trash.
The city’s Department of Sanitation wants you to smash your leftover gourds and pumpkins — carved or uncarved — at one of a handful of events across the city hosted in partnership with NYC Compost Project and GrowNYC.
Not only is it fun to smash pumpkins, but it’s good for the environment. Once the city-sponsored hammer time is over, the pulp from the pumpkins will be converted into compost, which will enrich soil around the city with nutrients from the scraps and also reduce landfill waste.
Several of the smashing sites supply catapults so attendees can launch their pumpkins into smithereens, according to a Department of Sanitation spokesperson, while some provide bats and shovels for a more hands-on experience. Either way, the result is the same — and equally good for the soil of city parks.
The city is hosting seven smashing events throughout early November. Three were held on Saturday, Nov. 3 — on Roosevelt Island, at Lou Lodati Park in Queens and on Staten Island.
The next event will be on Nov. 7 at Lehman College in the Bronx, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Manhattanites can take their leftover gourds to the Tribeca Greenmarket on Nov. 10 between 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. or to Corlears Hook Park in the Lower East Side between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Brooklynites can head to the Carroll Garden Greenmarket on Nov. 11 anytime between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.
