Don’t Let Your Pumpkins Go to Waste, Drop Them Off at a Smashing Event

Patty Wetli | October 27, 2025, 6:22 pm

(Grb / iStock)

The scariest thing about Halloween is the number of pumpkins that wind up in landfills every year.

All those jack-o-lanterns add up to a hefty amount of waste, but what’s worse is the methane they produce as they decompose.

Enter the pumpkin smash, an event that started a decade ago in the Chicago suburbs and has now grown into a nationwide movement.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Drop off your pumpkins at any one of the dozens of sites across Chicago and the suburbs on Saturday. All of the collected gourds will be taken to compost facilities and turned into rich soil. The methods of smashing or depositing pumpkins may vary at each site.

In 2024, nearly 165 tons of pumpkins (or 326,000 pounds) were diverted from landfill through SCARCE’s pumpkin smash events. That translates to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 118.46 tons, as well as the diversion of more than 35,000 gallons of water (pumpkins are 90% water).

Back in 2014 when SCARCE hosted its first pumpkin collections in Wheaton and Elmhurst, the group collected less than 10 tons.

Before dropping off pumpkins, be sure to remove and candles, ribbons, paint and other non-organic materials.

Along with keeping pumpkins out of the waste stream, the smash events are a way to dissuade people from dumping jack-o-lanterns in parks or forest preserves, where the gourds can cause multiple issues.

According to the University of Illinois Extension, which hosts a number of smash sites, rotting or decorated pumpkins are harmful to wildlife; discarded pumpkins and straw bales can smother native plants; and providing food for wild animals can lead to out-of-control populations.

There are a half-dozen pumpkin smash locations in Chicago (one site’s event has already passed), and dozens more are in the suburbs (click here to find the one nearest to you).

In Chicago:

— Guild Row, 3130 N. Rockwell St., 9 a.m. to noon.

— Lake View High School, 4015 N. Ashland Ave, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

— LaSalle II Magnet School, 1148 N. Honore St., 9 a.m. to noon.

— Morton Elementary, 431 N. Troy St., 9 a.m. to noon.

— New Life Community Church, 1651 N. Kedzie Ave., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

— Plant Chicago, 4459 S. Marshfield Ave., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]