WHATEVER you do this Halloween, don't forget to put Jack in the box.
That's the message from Metro Vancouver, which is asking jack o' lantern carvers across the Lower Mainland to compost their pumpkins, triangle eyes and all.
Metro Vancouver wants to remind residents that pumpkins are accepted in the yard trimmings containers used in each municipality in the region.
"Enjoy your Halloween but please don't put Jack in the trash," said Metro Vancouver board chairman Greg Moore in a press release.
If 25 per cent of households in Metro Vancouver haul out their big kitchen knives to scoop the goop from pumpkins this year, the net result will be organic waste consisting of 200,000 pumpkins.
Food scraps and yard trimmings account for approximately 40 per cent of residential garbage, according to Metro Vancouver. As the scraps and trimmings rot, they generate greenhouse gasses.
To counter those effects, residents are reminded that pumpkins are edible for humans and legless invertebrates, making great additions to a worm compost heap.
Gardeners can also bury their chopped up jack o' lanterns in a shallow trench in the vegetable or flower garden.
