What’s scarier than witches, ghosts and ghouls at Halloween? How about the 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin which ends up in rubbish bins each year. This is the same weight as 1,500 double decker buses.
There’s a lot more to pumpkins than Halloween carvings and Cinderella’s carriage so don’t just throw the edible pumpkin away, consider adding it to some lovely autumnal recipes. Pumpkins are delicious, versatile and can be added to sweet or savoury recipes.
Pumpkins are nutritious, packed with fibre, vitamins and minerals which can boost your immune system and antioxidants which reduce your risk of chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer. Check out the recipes on the Love Food Hate Waste website at www.lovefoodwaste.com/recipes.
By using up the edible parts of your pumpkin not only are you saving money on food, you are helping the environment as lots of safe to eat food is thrown away every year in this district alone.
You can either compost pumpkins at home or put it in your green food caddy. If you’ve carved yours and used it for Halloween, please remove any candles or tealights. Don’t put your pumpkin in your rubbish bin as we recycle your food waste every week by sending it to a special processing plant where it’s transformed into low-carbon electricity, or turned into compost, which farmers can use as fertiliser. This is great for the environment too.
For more information about what goes in which bin, visit www.tandridge.gov.uk/recyclingandrubbish.