BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Halloween night may be filled with frights, but the next garbage day is where the real horror lurks. Discarded by the 1,000s, decaying jack-o’-lanterns and rotting pumpkins are hauled off away by the truckload. Every year, pumpkins pile up and break down in our local landfills, producing methane, the greenhouse gas with a frightening environmental impact. Luckily, this haunting fate can be avoided.
University of Illinois Extension serving Livingston, McLean, and Woodford Counties will a host a Pumpkin Smash event from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on Sunday, November 1st, 2026, at Rader Family Farm, 1312 Ropp Road, Normal, IL.
Area residents are encouraged to bring pumpkins, carved or whole, for environmentally friendly disposal at the event in one of two ways. Smash your pumpkins with wooden mallets in the designated smashing dumpster or utilize the drop-off-only dumpster if you don’t want to smash them.
In partnership with the Town of Normal Public Works Department and Illinois State University Department of Agriculture, pumpkins smashed or dropped off in rollaway dumpsters at the November 1 event will be trucked off for composting at the Illinois State University Farm in Lexington.
Once at the facility, these pumpkins will be mixed with on-farm animal waste and Town of Normal yard and landscape waste. Over time, this mixture will be worked by the ISU Farm team to become high-quality compost for sale.
Some may ask why their pumpkins can’t be dumped in a forest preserve, out in the country for local wildlife, or thrown in the dumpster at home. Here are the facts.
Pumpkins dumped in forest preserves or in country road ditches can attract local wildlife to roadsides where they can be hit by cars. If that isn’t scary enough, pumpkins thrown in dumpsters go to landfills, where they become buried by other waste. As these orange watery orbs (~90% water) break down, they lack access to oxygen. In the absence of oxygen, organic decomposition leads to the production of methane – a potent greenhouse gas. By composting pumpkins, climate change can be mitigated, water saved, and wildlife kept safe.
“The pumpkin smash is an annual effort to divert pumpkins from landfills by providing locations for residents to drop off (and optionally smash) carved or expired pumpkins, which are then composted,” says the website of the original pumpkin smash event creator, SCARCE—School & Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education – a northern Illinois suburban non-profit.
Over a dozen Illinois Extension Pumpkin Smash Events are taking place throughout Illinois after Halloween this year in partnership with SCARCE, including the November 1 McLean County Pumpkin Smash, hosted by Rader Family Farms. In years past, McLean County’s Pumpkin Smash Event has yielded between 5 and 9 tons of pumpkin waste being composted, instead of trashed.
At the event, local recycling organizations will offer adult informational handouts on recycling programs, while University of Illinois Extension volunteers will offer two children’s activities – the Pumpkin Lifecycle Bracelet activity, and the Pumpkin Lifecycle Obstacle Course.
New this year, for those unable to make the event on November 1, pumpkins can be dropped off in either dumpster at the South end of the Rader Family Farms parking lot from Monday the 2nd of November through Thursday, November 5th at no charge.
“We are excited for another great Pumpkin Smash Event this year and thank Rader Family Farms for hosting us in 2026. If some can’t make the November 1, 1-4PM event, we hope the additional drop-off time during the week after the event will facilitate the collection of even more pumpkins than last year,” says Frillman.
NOTE: Pumpkins brought to be dropped off in the dumpster or smashed should be free of candles, stickers, glitter, metal, or anything synthetic and non-compostable. Pumpkins covered in water-based paints are acceptable for composting.
Go green this Halloween with a local pumpkin smash. Don’t Trash It, Smash It! Learn more at go.illinois.edu/events or scarce.org/pumpkins. To learn more about the composting program at Illinois State University Farm, call 309.438.0288.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 500 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through five program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, health and community wellness, and natural resources, environment, and energy.