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Halloween pumpkins

October 28, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the National Retail Federation, spending on Halloween festivities this year by the 72% of Americans who plan to celebrate is expected to total $11.6 billion – or about $104 per person. The annual consumer survey also found that 67% of Americans plan to pass out candy this year, and nearly 50% of Americans plan to carve a pumpkin.

To produce enough pumpkins for Halloween, farmers grow lots of them every year. In fact, more than two billion were grown in 2020 alone. But the vast majority of pumpkins are never eaten; instead, most are carved and placed on porches across the country. This means Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on pumpkins annually just to toss them in the trash when Halloween ends.

When pumpkins are placed in landfills, they produce methane gas. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that affects climate change by contributing to increased warming.

Instead of throwing pumpkins into the landfill, there are several responsible ways to dispose of them.

If the pumpkin is still in good shape, use the outer, meaty part of the pumpkin to make pumpkin puree. The pumpkin seeds can also be scooped out, rinsed, seasoned, and then baked in the oven, resulting in a delicious snack.

Pumpkins also have the potential to turn into great soil through composting. Pumpkins can help naturally add moisture to compost piles that need to be damp in order to effectively decompose food waste.

If eating or composting the pumpkins isn’t an option, consider donating them to a local farm. Farmers will often collect pumpkins as treats for their pigs, goats, and other animals.

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Web Links

Halloween Retail Holiday and Seasonal Trends

Ready to toss out your pumpkins? Here’s how to keep them out of the landfill

US grows over 2 billion pumpkins yearly

Photo, posted November 8, 2014, courtesy of Martin Brigden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Food Waste And The Environment | Earth Wise

November 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It is tragic that 31% of the world’s food production goes uneaten. About 14% isn’t distributed after it is harvested. Another 17% ends up wasted in retail or by consumers. Worldwide, the amount of food that is wasted is enough to feed more than a billion people while at least 828 million people continue to be affected by hunger. To make matters worse, food waste accounts for 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is at least double that of aviation. Food waste, rotting away in landfills, produces methane gas, a major source of global warming.

Around the world, there are efforts being launched to try to improve the situation. California now has a law that requires grocery stores to donate edible food that would otherwise be disposed of or they face fines. The state’s cities and counties are required to reduce the amount of organic waste going into landfills by 75% by 2025 and compost it instead.

In London, grocers no longer put date labels on fruits and vegetables because the labels were leading people to trash perfectly good food. France now requires supermarkets and large caterers to donate food that is still safe to eat.

South Korea has little space for landfills. So, the country has been campaigning against throwing away food for 20 years. Nearly all organic waste in the country is turned into animal feed, compost, or biogas. Koreans even have to pay for throwing out food waste. There are now trash bins equipped with electronic sensors that weigh food waste.

All of these things can help. There is no single magic bullet for reducing food waste, but it is essential to do for so many reasons.

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Web Links

Inside the Global Effort to Keep Perfectly Good Food Out of the Dump

Photo, posted November 30, 2020, courtesy of Marco Verch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Paying To Combat Climate Change | Earth Wise

November 2, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The majority of Americans believe that climate change is happening, that human activities are largely responsible, and are actually willing to put up their own money to help fight it. Unfortunately, these views diverge sharply along party lines and, as in many other areas these days, the will of the overall majority has little influence on policy.

According to Yale University research, 73% of adults think that global warming in happening and 57% think it is mostly caused by human activities. Furthermore, only 32% believe it is due to natural forces.

A survey conducted in the U.S. in August found that more than two-thirds of Americans – actually 70% – indicated willingness to donate a percentage of their personal income to support the fight against climate change.

Breaking that down further, 28% were willing to provide less than 1% of their income, 33% were willing to contribute 1-5% of their income, 6% said they would give 6-10% of their income, and 3% said they would contribute more than 10% of their income. On the other hand, roughly 30% indicated that they were unwilling to contribute.

The survey also looked at opinions on how the fight against climate change should be paid for. The majority (59%) chose government incentives for both businesses and consumers. Three other options each favored by over 40% of those surveyed were taxes, conservation programs, and business investments.

Another finding of the survey was that 44% are dissatisfied with the job that the federal and state governments are doing to address climate change, 35% are somewhat satisfied, and only 21% are very or completely satisfied with the government’s role.

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Web Links

Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2020

Two-thirds of Americans are willing to donate part of their income to fight climate change

Photo, posted April 29, 2017, courtesy of majunznk via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Green Bills Pass In New York | Earth Wise

August 19, 2020 By EarthWise 3 Comments

In late July, the two houses of the New York legislature passed a number of environmental bills covering a wide range of topics.

These included a bill to add protected status for streams that support fisheries and non-contact recreation. A second bill bans the use of PFAS in food packaging. A third bill classifies all wastes resulting from oil and gas exploration, development, extraction or production as hazardous waste, closing a previous loophole in the law.

A fourth bill requires water works corporations with more than 1,000 service connections to post their annual water supply statements online, thereby providing transparency and openness to water quality data. A fifth bill expands protections for endangered species to protect them from environmental rollbacks by the federal government.

A sixth bill prohibits non-electric vehicles from parking in spaces designated for electric vehicle charging, thereby establishing penalties for this practice that is often done for spite. A seventh bill bans the use of glyphosate – the herbicide found in Roundup and other products – on state property.

An eighth bill reduces the use of road salt in the Adirondacks. A ninth bill requires supermarkets to make good faith efforts to donate edible excess food to qualifying entities such as food pantries, food banks, or similar entities. A tenth bill bans certain uses of trichloroethylene or TCE, including as a vapor degreaser, an intermediate chemical to produce other chemicals, a refrigerant, or an extraction solvent.

When signed by the governor, these ten pieces of legislation will help protect New York’s environment, water, and health. It was a busy session for green legislation.

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Web Links

Several Green Bills Pass in State Legislature

Photo, posted September 12, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wasting Less Food

August 4, 2017 By EarthWise

We have talked about the problem of food waste before. About 40% of the food produced in the United States goes to waste, which is a truly shameful statistic. According to a Business for Social Responsibility study on the subject, about 44% of the food that goes into landfills comes from homes. About a third comes from the food service industry.

[Read more…] about Wasting Less Food

European Lessons On Food Waste

February 17, 2017 By EarthWise

Americans toss out an almost unbelievable $161 billion worth of food every year. There are numerous efforts underway to address this problem, but they are mostly at the local level or in the business sector. To date, we have no national- or international-level policies that tackle the issue. In this regard, Europe is way ahead of us.