6 Easy Halloween Sustainable Tips Including How To Use Vinegar To Preserve Carved Pumpkins
Photo taken in between two trees at Millennium park; leaves cover the gross and the leaves remaining in the trees in the front of the picture are organge while the ones in the back of the frame are still green
There’s just something about fall in Chicago: the leaves crunching under your feet, the crisp chill in the air that brings to mind the images of carved pumpkins lounging on porches. A chilly night not cold enough for winter gear, but not warm enough to linger outside, pulls out a desire to grab a pumpkin and start carving.
While pumpkins are a major part of getting into the fall spirit, every year millions of pumpkins get sent to the landfill. This autumn season, making two small changes like learning how to preserve your carved pumpkin with vinegar (instead of bleach) and ensuring you recycle your pumpkin are easy things you can do to make this Halloween a little easier on Mother Earth.
Dust off your Halloween decorations Chicago, and go ahead and dive into that bag of candy we know you already have, as we guide you through how to do both of those things this spooky season.
Why Pumpkins?
Small pumpkin resting in someone's open hand. Only the hand is visible against the backdrop of dark leaves
Photo by: Matthew Henry/Burst
Thousands of years ago, carved root vegetables and costumes were used to celebrate the end of the harvest and ward off restless and bad spirits in the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). The tradition evolved through time and when Irish immigrants settled in the U.S. in the early 19th and 20th centuries, their legends came with them.
Irish immigrants have played a critical part in making the City of Chicago what it is today. Root vegetables were the OG pumpkins back in Ireland, but here in the U.S. pumpkins were growing abundantly and were much better suited for carving than the original root vegetables.
Pumpkins quickly became an economic representation of Halloween, and lucky for us, Illinois has a climate well-suited for pumpkin growing. As of 2021, we harvested twice as many pumpkin acres as other top states!
Do Not Preserve Your Carved Pumpkin With Bleach, Here’s Why
two lighted jack o lanterns during night time
Photo by Beth Teutschmann/Unsplash
One of the most common tricks you’ll see around Halloween is to use bleach to ‘preserve your carved pumpkins for longer’. Please don’t do that.
We understand why you want to preserve your art even though personally, we think decomposing pumpkins makes it all a little bit scarier. One of the best (free) fall activities in Chicago is the pumpkin art walk — the very unofficial sport of roaming various neighborhoods admiring the pumpkin art. Bonus points for a pumpkin spice latte (in your reusable cup of course).
We’ve seen everything from bleach baths to bleach sprays but we’re here to tell you you can still preserve your pumpkin sans bleach. And there are a few reasons you want to:
As your pumpkins are sitting outside they’re being visited by local critters of all sorts; bleach is not on their approved diet and can be really harmful for them.
This also includes stray cats and dogs — pumpkins provide a good source of fiber and water for our pets!
Bleached pumpkins cannot be composted and must be sent to the landfill. The couple of pumpkins you have on your stoop might not seem like a big deal but multiply that by a city of millions and then by a country and that’s a lot of unnecessary landfill waste.
No good right?
Preserve Your Carved Pumpkin With Vinegar Instead
person's hand holding a small white pumpkin that is dripping - most likely it just got a vinegar bath to help preserve it in an eco-friendly way
Photo by Samantha Hurley/Burst
Here’s the thing, according to the Clorox website, bleach is perfectly safe to use to ‘preserve’ your pumpkins. And that may be true if the proper dilution formulas are followed, but you wouldn’t bleach your food to clean it and there are healthier alternatives to preserve it.
If you don’t have to do it, don’t.
How To Preserve Your Carved Pumpkins With Vinegar
Wash your pumpkins to get any remaining dirt and debris off them.
Get a bucket or put a stopper in the sink.
Mix 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water.
Put the pumpkin in the mixture and let sit for 20-30 minutes.
That’s it!
Vinegar is a common natural, non-toxic cleaning agent and works well to inhibit and kill some viruses and bacteria. Because of its antifungal and antibacterial properties, it also works effectively at killing mold — which is what helps when we want to preserve those carved pumpkins. Most importantly, a pumpkin preserved with vinegar can be composted at the end of its life and is safe for critters to snack on.
No matter what your pumpkin plans are this fall season, there are plenty of ways you can have a spooky season that doesn’t add anything to the landfill. And with that, here are 5 non-spooky ways you can responsibly recycle your pumpkin this year!
5 Ways To Recycle Your Pumpkins
pumpkin cookies with white chocolate chips cooling on a cookie rack
Photo by Sarah Pflug/Burst
1. Eat it
In all the spookiness and pumpkin carving excitement, it’s easy to forget that pumpkins are an edible, nutritious fruit! And we’re not just talking about pumpkin pie. Pumpkins can be used in salads, in soups, in chili, and so much more. Use the shell for decoration and scoop out the insides to turn it into a puree or other delicious dish.
2. Donate it
If you got a little carried away at the pumpkin patch and have too many pumpkins hanging around you can donate them to a local animal farm or sanctuary. Pumpkins for Pigs matches you with pigs and other pumpkin-eaters to provide a way to keep pumpkins out of landfills while providing a nutritious meal! The only caveat is the pumpkins need to be undecorated and uncarved.
3. Compost it
As long as you didn’t bleach it or add glitter, pumpkins are 100% compostable! If you’re more of a pumpkin painter than a carver, try to use non-toxic food-grade paint (absolutely no acrylics, which are plastic). As of right now, the City of Chicago does not have a municipal composting program, (yet) but there are a variety of ways to get your pumpkin composted.
Sign up for one of the many private composting services in Chicago and give it a try!
Check with a local CSA.
Check with a community garden near you
Attend a pumpkin smash (see #5)!
4. Bury It
Pumpkins are 90% water which means they break down quickly. That makes them bad for landfills but easy to dispose of because you can bury them right in your yard or use them as fertilizer for your other garden plants!
Have a pumpkin smash at your house to break your pumpkin into smaller pieces. Dig a shallow hole, put the pumpkin in, cover it up, and put some leaves on top if you have them. Wait for Mother Nature to do her thing.
Finish drying out your pumpkin in the oven. Chop it into small pieces and sprinkle it throughout your garden bed.
Lastly, put the pumpkin remains in a far corner of your yard and let the critters snack on it.
Whichever burial option you choose, make sure to remove the seeds unless you want to try your hand at growing your own pumpkin vine next year.
5. Pumpkin SMASH
Inarguably the most fun way of disposing of your pumpkins is through a pumpkin smash. Hosted by Scarce, the Chicago 2023 pumpkin smash is scheduled for November 4, 2023, in 21 locations! The Plant Chicago is also hosting a pumpkin smash on November 4, 2023 as well in Back of the Yards. After the smash, the pumpkins will be transported to a composting facility diverting hundreds of tons of pumpkins from the landfill! If you’re planning on attending a pumpkin smash, please make sure to clear your pumpkins of candles, glitter, and other types of non-acrylic paint.
No matter what the weather throws at us this Halloween, join the Chicago sustainability crew in keeping the environment a little healthier, a little safer, and a little better prepared for the future by learning how to preserve your carved pumpkins with vinegar and recycling them properly at the end of the season!
