After the last trick-or-treater has scooped up the last candy bar this Halloween, Clark County residents will be left with a pressing problem: What to do with all those moldy jack-o’-lanterns.

Proper post-Halloween pumpkin protocol matters because rotting pumpkins in landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas “up to 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” said Camille Salazar, environmental outreach specialist with Clark County Public Works and Clark County Green Neighbors .

A 2024 article in The Washington Post reported that the pumpkins we toss into landfills each year make about 7,500 tons of methane — equivalent to emissions produced by 45,000 cars.

“We really try to encourage the community to compost not only pumpkins but all organic waste,” Salazar said.

People should “th

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