How to Host a Pumpkin Drop
Most of the 1.3 BILLION pounds of pumpkins land in the landfill. Spooky thought, right? Jumpscare, for real.
3 Reasons Pumpkins Don’t Go Landfilling
Emits Awful Gases: It takes pumpkins + gourds up to 2 decades to break down, meanwhile putting out a potent greenhouse gas - methane - which contributes to global warming.
Full of water: Pumpkins = full of water. When water combines with plastics + other yucks in the landfill it creates a toxic sludge, leachate, which leaks into our waterways, causing potential damage to humans, animals and the environment.
Take up Space: Facts are facts. Pumpkins are bulky, and tossing in the landfill takes up space. Historically, the poor and vulnerable are picked as neighbors for such things. It’s not cool.
So instead, after this year’s Halloween season, collaborate with us to set up a “Pumpkin Drive” to collect pumpkins & gourds from around the community. We will feed forest roaming pigs and the rest will be turned into nutrient dense soil at our commercial composting facility.
How it works
It’s as simple as us dropping off a large container, the community filling it, and us picking up the material in our trucks. Please no paint, glitter or candles.
Prove it
2023
Our followers asked, and we listened. New to 2023, twenty yards of pumpkins collected from Dundee Bank fed forest roaming pigs at Little Mountain Farm. A second load accumulated here went to our composting farm.
NeighborGood Food Pantry hosted a pumpkin drop that collected twenty yards of organic material to be turned into nutrient-dense soil.
In the News
Nieman says, “small changes make a big, big difference,” in her interview by KETV.
Crampton teaches how pumpkins can be put to good use on Channel 3 News NOW.
2022
Dundee Bank hosted a pumpkin drop where 25 cubic yards were collected and turned into nutrient-dense soil. Come spring 2023, soil-filled gardens, landscapes, and farms around our community will help reverse the effects of climate change.
Best of all, Hillside Solutions has a year-round program to compost your food waste and get some soil back yourself. Sign up at hillside.solutions/compostclub
Commercial composting facility changes the game.
So, how do I get Started?
Do you have the time?
Most people are only tossing pumpkins out after the holiday. So, to ensure volume, pick a date after Halloween (and we’ll pick it up exactly one week later). Gucci?
Do you have the space?
Make space for a 20-yard roll-off on a flat surface, like a parking lot or field. Our trucks must be able to service it with ease. How big is that? Peep our "container sizes" here.
Do you have the proper budget?
We’d love for this service to be free. Heck - we’d make all our services free if we could. Buuuuuut, we must charge for the expenses that occur during labor + delivery. Our pumpkin drops run from $275-350.
Ready-Spaghetti? Fill out the form:
Signed up? Bet!
It’s time to alert the media. Always put event details after the post. Here are some creative captions:
Hey, pumpkin! Instead of sending your pumpkins to the landfill (a. put off methane gas; b. shorten the lifespan of our landfill, c. create toxic sludge), we’re partnering with Hillside Solutions to send this material to their commercial composting facility where it’s turned into nutrient dense soil that winds up in gardens & farms around our community. (EVENT DETAILS HERE)
We’re participating in the future of waste diversion through hosting a pumpkin drop-off site through Hillside Solution’s composting program.
It’s pumpkin everything season. But when it’s over - what will you do with your pumpkins? Drop them off at (LOCATION DETAILS) during (DATE). We’re partnering with Hillside Solutions to send this material to their commercial composting facility where it’s turned into nutrient dense soil that winds up in gardens & farms around our community.
Landfilling pumpkins & gourds can take 1-2 decades to break down, meanwhile producing a potent greenhouse gas - methane - which goes into our air contributing to global warming. To help prevent this nightmare, we’re partnering with Hillside Solutions to send this material to their commercial composting facility where it’s turned into nutrient dense soil that winds up in gardens & farms around our community.
Pumpkins are full of water. That water combines with other materials in a landfill, creating leachate (a toxic sludge) that can potentially leak into our waterways, causing damage to our health. Scary, right? That’s why we’re partnering with Hillside Solutions to send this material to their commercial composting facility where it’s turned into nutrient dense soil that winds up in gardens & farms around our community.
I missed the event. Now what?
Our sister-store, located near Eppley Airport, Soil Dynamics will take them at no cost. Double check business hours prior to visiting here.
Join Compost Club. Subscribe & join the party alongside 1,500 households that collect compostable material, like pumpkins and gourds, at home and deposit at 60 + sites.
