To celebrate one of the most dramatic ways to be eco-friendly, the giant trebuchet came out of storage last weekend for the annual Forest Park Pumpkin Smash.
The Saturday after Halloween, local families gathered at the Altenheim field off Van Buren Street to crush their carved and uncarved gourds before scraps are sent to a commercial organic waste site. Participants simply bring a pumpkin, then pull a string and release a 50-pound hammer on their jack-o-lantern.
Because pumpkins are organic material, they make the perfect addition to compost piles. Composting organic material, like pumpkins, rather than tossing it in the trash prevents it from getting buried under layers of garbage. When organic material decomposes without access to oxygen, it triggers anaerobic decomposition, which produces methane. This greenhouse gas traps more heat than carbon dioxide. Keeping pumpkins out of the trash helps them become rich organic matter with nutrients to become a soil enricher.
The pumpkin smash tradition allows village residents and staff to take part in composting, waste reduction and sustainability efforts in the community. It’s a small way Forest Park takes part in reducing the billions of pounds of pumpkin waste that is discarded in the United States every year.
At the Nov. 9 village council meeting, Village Administrator Rachell Entler and Jessica Voogd, commissioner of public property and council liaison to the recreation board, applauded the event’s success.
“It’s always fun to get out there and see the kids. I even kind of geek out a little bit with the science behind the pumpkin smasher and everything. Thank you for putting on that event and making it something new to Forest Park the last couple of years,” Entler said. “Hopefully we will be able to grow that event even more in the coming years.”
“I want to thank everyone who came out and to have so many people helping to make an event a success,” Voogd said. She thanked U3 for donating coffee and hot chocolate, Forest Park Bakery for donating donuts, SBC for the dumpster to fill with pumpkin bits, and the D91 PTO for selling popcorn.
She also thanked Amy Binns-Calvey — who used to chair the recreation board and, on Monday, became the newest commissioner on the village council — and her husband, Geoff Binns-Calvey, who constructed the trebuchet.
Voogd also shouted out Dan Marcus, the Forest Park Police Department and public works “for keeping it running smoothly and being so much fun.”
Check out The Great Pumpkin Problem on YouTube to discover the benefits of composting and what happens when pumpkins are sent to landfills instead.