By Bruce Karnick

Carving pumpkins is a delight for kids and adults alike. The mess, the goop, the funny faces, the talented artwork, the painting, all centered around family fun. But what do you do with them AFTER Halloween?

What is the best way to get rid of them?

COMPOST! Yes, pumpkins are compostable, once you clean off any paint and take out any candles. In Hastings, you have three options to compost and one additional option for disposal.

Your own, backyard compost. This is providing the most direct benefit to you and your garden.

Bring them to the Pumpkin drop off this weekend at the Dakota County Transportation shop. Details below.

If you are part of the Tennis Sanitation compost program, you can put them in your yard waste bin. This is the least desirable option for compost, primarily because of costs associated with it.

If you are not able to do any of the above, the Garbage Can, but you should really try to get them to the drop off if you are able instead of using the garbage.

If you truly cannot get to the special event to compost them and if you are not part of the yard waste program with Tennis, you can put them in the garbage. The biggest issue with putting them in the garbage is the weight. Halloween can easily cause multiple extra trips to the dump per route. Hastings residential trash must be transported to Red Wing to be processed. The 45-60-minute drive along with the $800 or more dump bill per truck ads up quick. “With COVID, our dump bill has gone up significantly each month already,” Co-Owner Greg Tennis said by phone.

Those increases are due to so many people being home and doing home projects. Pumpkins can actually add more weight that some construction projects, and when homes have half their cart full of pumpkins, plus their normal trash, it adds up quick. These are all costs that carriers need to take into account when they bid out the city contracts. Just talking with Greg Tennis, you learn quick how much they do to keep their prices low and offer great customer service, you can see they do it right, sometimes it is simply out of their control. We need to do our part to help that.

A big part is DO NOT PUT THEM IN RECYCLING! Recycling is NOT for compost, it is for paper, cardboard, plastics, and metal. That means the garbage really should be your last resort.

Pumpkin drop-off Friday, November Sixth 3:00 p.m. through Sunday, November Eighth at 8:00 p.m. Dakota County Transportation Shop 900 Co Rd 47, Hastings.