Environment, Rockville Reports

Compost Food Scraps and Recycle Pumpkins

Compost Food Scraps and Recycle Pumpkins

Don’t let food scraps and holiday pumpkins go to waste. Rockville’s Food Scraps Drop-Off program makes it easy to keep valuable organic materials out of landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Undecorated pumpkins are accepted at city food scraps drop-off locations. Before composting, remove candles, battery-powered lights, plastic decorations or other inorganic materials, and cut large pumpkins into smaller pieces to save space in bins. Pumpkins decorated with paint or glitter belong in the trash.

Pumpkins can take up a lot of space in bins. Consider these alternatives before composting.

Use pulp in soups, purees, bread or other baked goods, and roast seeds with seasonings for a fall snack. Check with local farms or animal organizations before dropping off pumpkins for animal feed; not all accept them. Cut pumpkins in half and fill them with birdseed to make natural bird feeders, or use them as fall planters.

The city has four free food scraps drop-off locations, all accessible 24/7: Maintenance Facility, Potomac Woods Park, Twinbrook Community Recreation Center and Rockville Senior Center.

Find food scraps drop-off locations and a list of accepted materials on the Food Scraps page.