Once Halloween is over, and you’re stocked with candy for the next two months, it’s natural to throw your rotting pumpkins covered in flies in the trash and send them off to your local landfill, but this actually hurts the earth and the environment. When organic material, like a pumpkin, doesn’t get enough oxygen in the landfill, it releases methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas and can be harmful to the environment. This is a problem because over 20 billion pumpkins are sold every year, which means almost 20 billion pumpkins end up in the landfill. There are many ways to stop this from occurring, like by having a compost. A compost is a good way to return organic material like pumpkins to the soil for more plants to grow. The problem with this is not everyone has a compost. Another way to stop pumpkins from ending up in landfills is by leaving them out in your backyard for animals to eat and, with the help of the elements, they will eventually break down and not have any negative effects on the environment. This is due to the fact that the pumpkins are getting plenty of oxygen in your backyard but aren’t in the landfill because they are being buried under pounds of trash. Another way you can stop pumpkins from releasing damaging gasses is by baking the pumpkin in all kinds of food like pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds, and even pumpkin cake. The final and most effective way to avoid doing all of this is by just buying plastic pumpkins. This can help because it saves money on expensive pumpkins and can prevent damage from being done to the environment, that way you can save your money for next year’s Halloween candy and save the planet.