Don’t Send Pumpkins to the Landfill!

When pumpkins get buried under other garbage in landfills, they decompose without oxygen. This process releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps significantly more heat than carbon dioxide.

Discarded pumpkins produce roughly 83 million pounds of methane emissions annually.

At Turner Farms in Missoula, Erin and John Turner and their sons work with local composter Soil Cycle to divert thousands of pounds of pumpkins from the landfill by feeding them to livestock.

Turner Farms will begin collecting unwanted pumpkins on Sunday, November 1. Collection bins will be placed on the side of the Stallion Lane cul de sac, off Third Street West.

The Turner family’s animals – pigs, cattle, goats – thrive eating pumpkins all of November! The manure is used to feed the soil, which produces healthy and sustainable vegetables and pumpkins all through the growing months!