Remember to put pumpkins in food waste caddy, they are used to generate electricity

The council is reminding residents to cut up Halloween pumpkins and place them into the green food waste caddy where they will go towards powering our homes this winter and compost.

The UK grows around 10 million pumpkins each year and it’s estimated that 95% of these giant squashes are destined to be carved into decorative Halloween lanterns.

Of those, 18,000 tonnes end up in the bin after Halloween.

🎃Is your pumpkin looking a bit deflated? Remember to cut it into chunks and place in your food waste caddy where it will go to generate electricity and compost, but please remove any candles and decorations first.

— Flintshire Council (@FlintshireCC) November 1, 2022

Every bit of the pumpkin can be recycled, just remember to take the candle out first!

They are also good for putting on your home composting heap but “do not put them in your garden waste bin.” Flintshire Council said.

If the remnants of your pumpkin end up in your general waste bin, they will ultimately be sent to landfill, where they eventually rot away, but not until they’ve added more methane – a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide – to an already ozone-damaging mix of refuse emissions.

The UK currently sends around 7 million tonnes of food to landfill each year, allof which can be processed in more environmentally friendly ways, including anaerobic digestion, conversion into biogas or put in a compost heap.