With snow sprinkling on the mountaintops, the festivities of fall are being quickly forgotten. Four thousand pounds of pumpkins, no longer wanted, rumble around the bed of a small dump truck in Missoula. But rather than a landfill, these pumpkins will see their journey end in a field with a dozen pigs. This is the sixth annual Pumpkin Reharvest, dreamt up by composting nonprofit Soil Cycle.
This delivery of abandoned jack-o'-lanterns is going to Turner Farms. Ethan Turner is happy to accept the reharvest.
"Pumpkins are a phenomenal feed source, particularly at this time of year as we're gearing up for the winter," he says.
The pumpkins are rich in vitamins and probiotics for feed.
"And then on the back side, when they come out the the back end of the cow or the pig, it's phenomenal soil for us next year," Turner says.
In addition to making a pig’s day, the reharvest also lessens the environmental impacts that would happen if those pumpkins were thrown away. Mikela Nolin runs Soil Cycle, and says work like this keeps food out of landfills.
"The Missoula Landfill is made up of 60% compostable items, 15% of which is food. "
When food ends up in a landfill, it cannot decompose the way it would in a compost bin. A head of lettuce takes 2-4 weeks to break down in a compost pile, but in a landfill it can take 25 years. For a pumpkin, that can be even longer.
Plus, the decomposition of food in landfills releases methane gas, which warms the planet even faster than other greenhouse gasses.
On average, the reharvest diverts anywhere from 4,000 - 6,000 pounds of pumpkins from the landfill each year.
Twenty minutes into the drop off, several pumpkins have already been devoured.
