The city aims to deliver 3,000 compost bins to residents throughout Chicago's 50 wards. The city initially allocated 20 compost bins to distribute in each ward but increased it to 60 bins per ward due to demand.

Take your jack-o’-lanterns to one of the dozens of pumpkin smash events happening Saturday in Chicago and the suburbs.

Once eligibility is confirmed, city staff will deliver a free compost bin to residents’ homes, according to a news release announcing the initiative. Each ward will receive an initial allocation of 20 bins.

This weekend, nearly 80 sites across the greater Chicago region will be collecting pumpkins for composting, part of a nationwide push to keep food waste out of landfills.

Less than 9% of the trash produced every year by Chicago residents is kept out of landfills — a rate that has been essentially unchanged for five years, despite repeated calls for the city to do a better job at recycling.

Six community gardens will test the logistics of a compost program that could be expanded if it proves successful and scaleable.

To keep jack-o'-lanterns from clogging landfills, dozens of pumpkin smash events will take place Saturday. Pumpkins will be collected and composted instead of trashed.

Chicago has long had a tortured relationship with recycling. City leaders have scrapped old programs and replaced them with new ones, but the result is the same  recycling rates in the single digits. 

Chicago bills itself as a world-class city, but when it comes to recycling, its performance has been less than first-rate. 

The University of Illinois Extension in Cook County is teaming up with the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and Plant Chicago on a pair of compost collection events in Chicago on Saturday.

The annual Pumpkin Smash event encourages people to compost their gourds instead of trashing them. Dozens of sites across the Chicago region will be collecting jack-o’-lanterns and gourds on Nov. 6.

Plans are underway to keep organic waste out of Chicago's landfills, officials said.

Jay Shefsky tells us about companies that pick up food scraps from restaurants and now from your home -- and turn them into compost. And, he takes us to an urban farm that uses that compost to grow vegetables -- and jobs.

We learn how to reduce landfill waste through the everyday art of composting.