Pumpkin Lantern, pic: Christina Georgiou

A new organisation in Croydon that collects food waste will allow thousands of pumpkins to be recycled after the upcoming Halloween festivities this month.

According to the country’s major retailers, Halloween sales have been increasing over the past few years, with October’s annual pumpkin sales being one of the main contributing factors making it one of the most popular celebrations on the calendar.

In Croydon, an estimated 10,000 pumpkins are expected to be turned into lanterns over this years Halloween. That comes out to a potential 25 tonnes of squash, considering that each pumpkin weighs around 2-3kgs. In addition to being turned into decorative lanterns, pumpkins’ flesh and seeds are a tasty factor for lots of traditional recipes.

However, once the ghoulish events of October 31 have passed, the council expects all remains to be taking over garbage bins in the borough. The organisation will aim to recycle as many of the disposed crafted lanterns, expecting numbers to increase day by day.

Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for environment and highways, said: “More and more people are celebrating and enjoying Halloween. It’s great to see people having fun”

“But it’s also a good time to make use of the new food waste bins we delivered to every home earlier this month. We’re already picking up about 40 tonnes of compostable waste from them each day. If everyone with a pumpkin lantern puts theirs out during the first week in November we could see that go up by several tonnes a day.”

Get in on the Halloween fun and start recycling your festive pumpkins this month.