'We want your pumpkins': Houstonians urged to take jack-o'-lanterns to city compost pilot program dropoffs

Halloween is over and Houston has many, many jack-o'-lanterns and other gourd-based holiday decorations with no apparent other place to go than a municipal landfill.

Houston City Council Member Sallie Alcorn is hoping city residents hand over those gourds to the city's compost pilot program instead.

"We want your pumpkins," Alcorn said in her Twitter post Monday, Nov. 1. "Don't toss your jack-o'-lantern just yet – all city pilot composting locations take pumpkins!"

Alcorn is encouraging Houstonians to drop off their post-Halloween jack-o'-lanterns and other gourd-based decorations at three drop off points in the city's composting pilot program that runs through Nov. 27. The drop off points open at 9 a.m. Saturdays at the Kashmere Multi-Service Center at 4802 Lockwood Dr. and at the Houston Botanic Garden at 1 Botanic Lane; and 5 p.m. Wednesdays at the Historic Heights Fire Station at 107 W. 12th St.

The pilot program is part of the city's Climate Action Plan that seeks to “strengthen and support efforts to collect and compost food organics.”

In addition to pumpkins and other gourds, Houston residents are encouraged to bring edible scraps such as breads and grains, coffee grounds and filters, meat and bones, egg shells and dairy.

The drop points also are accepting non-edible scraps, such as newspapers, paper napkins and towels, and wood ash.

The city's compost pilot program is an idea about addressing the approximately 6.2 million tons of municipal solid waste that Houston residents, businesses and institutions generate each year, according to the compost page of the city's website.

Composting reduces waste, enhances rainfall penetration and reduces water runoff and soil erosion. Compost improves soil and enhances beneficial microbes that in turn reduces plant diseases and pest.

The city's compost pilot program has its roots in the composting triumph earlier this year of 16-year-old Girl Scout Monica Orozco, who kicked off a community composting drop-off program that had collected 4,000 pounds of compost. Alcorn, in July Facebook and Twitter posts, praised Orozco's programs.

"The city will be following her lead with a composting pilot program in three Houston neighborhoods coming in October," Alcorn said in her July Facebook post. "The landfill gives me anxiety, so thanks Monica for doing your part to divert waste away."