Halloween fans in the county still have time to win a £50 restaurant voucher by repurposing those pumpkins and reducing waste.
Staffordshire-based Willshee’s Waste & Recycling has joined forces with Burton restaurant Isabel’s to challenge the local community to show off the ways they are cutting pumpkin waste.
The social media competition runs until just before midnight on Sunday band encourages residents to share the creative methods used to reduce the amount of pumpkin waste being thrown away – anything from homemade pumpkin bread and smoothies to body scrubs or bird feeders.
Here’s how to enter:
The competition is running via the Willshee’s Instagram channel, see the post here with full details.
People need to share a story/stories of how they’re reusing or reducing pumpkin waste in a creative way, tag @willshees_waste and @isabelsburton in the IG story (and follow both accounts).
Willshee’s will join the Isabel’s team to select their favourite, who will win a £50 voucher to spend at the restaurant.
18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin waste will end up in the bin this year and pumpkin waste sent to landfill decomposes and produces methane which is over 25 times more harmful to the Earth’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide
Dean Willshee, Managing Director of Willshee’s, said: “We understand the importance of reducing waste and ensuring unavoidable food waste is recycled.
“We’re proud to manage Isabel’s food waste, diverting it from landfill into energy and fertiliser for local agriculture businesses.
“And we hope by partnering with them we can help educate the local area on Halloween waste and how households can make simple changes that have a positive impact.”
Here are a few top tips from the Willshee’s team on reducing Halloween waste:
- Don’t throw pumpkin flesh it in the bin. You can use it to make delicious soups, pies or pasta sauce. The BBC has plenty of recipes to help inspire you.
- You can roast any leftover pumpkin seeds to create a superfood snack which can be added to muesli or smoothies for a vitamin and mineral boost. You can find some exciting ideas here.
- After Halloween, you can smash your pumpkin into little chunks – a great activity for kids – and add them to your garden compost bin. The smaller the pieces the quicker they will decompose.
- If you have a food waste collection in your area, pop it in your food waste caddy. It will then be used to generate energy and fertiliser for agriculture.
To find out more about Willshee’s responsible food waste management service, visit their website.