Pumpkin Smash
Pumpkin Smash events are a fun and climate-friendly way to discard your Halloween pumpkins, and a large-scale community effort to divert pumpkins from landfills and process them into healthy minerals used to improve soil health.
Each year, Chicago hosts Pumpkin Smash events in locations throughout the City. Below are the 2023 locations.
- Plant Chicago, 4459 S Marshfield Ave (10 am – 2 pm)
- Comer Crops Youth Farm, 7200 S Ingleside Ave (10 am – 2 pm)
- Morton School of Excellence, 431 N Troy St (10 am – 2 pm)
- Disney II Magnet School, 3815 N Kedvale Ave (10 am – 2 pm)
- George Washington High School, 3535 E 114th St (10 am – 2 pm)
- Solorio Academy High School, 5400 S St. Louis Ave (10 am – 2 pm)
- Coonley Elementary School, 4046 N Leavitt St (10 am – 2 pm) Hosted by the 47th Ward Office
- Carl von Linné Elementary School, 3221 N Sacramento Ave (10 am – 2 pm)
- Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, 3857 W 111th St (10 am – 2 pm)
- Chicago Fire Station 70, 6040 N Clark St (This site only: 12 pm – 4 pm) Hosted by the Edgewater Environmental Coalition
Visit www.scarce.org/pumpkins to find additional locations throughout Chicagoland.
Download 2023 Pumpkin Smash Flyer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please remove all candles, decorations, and paint from your pumpkins before you arrive.
DSS will take them to a local composting facility where they will be composted.
When pumpkins and other organic materials decompose in a landfill, the potent greenhouse gas methane is produced. By keeping pumpkins out of the landfill, you are reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Learn more about methane as a greenhouse gas from the US EPA.
Compost is a valuable, earthy-smelling soil amendment loaded with recycled nutrients and teeming with beneficial microorganisms that can be used to build healthy soil. Learn more about the benefits of composting from the US EPA.
By composting your pumpkins, you are helping meet Chicago’s Climate Action Plan and Waste Strategy goals.