Turn your sour pumpkin into sweet compost

Just in time for your carved Halloween pumpkins to get scary smelly, College of Lake County is collecting pumpkins in a safe and socially distanced drive thru event at the Grayslake Campus. Bring any size and variety of pumpkin on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. The college is collecting them for compost at the Campus Farm. Drop off is at Lancer Lane and University Center Drive.

Campus sustainability manager David Husemoller says, “It’s the best thing to do besides eating it!”

Here are some other reasons to recycle your jack-o-lanterns:

• Composting returns vital nutrients to our soils as natural fertilizer.

• Composting reduces methane gas creation at our landfills. Methane is contributing to our changing climate – it is a greenhouse gas!
• Composting makes food more delicious by enriching soil naturally.
• Composting reduces harmful run-off from pesticides and herbicides because you don’t need to use as much.

In past years more than 6 tons of pumpkins have been collected at the CLC event, diverting the waste from landfills and the nutrients back into food through the farm.