The costumes are back in the closet, the candy’s long been consumed and the leftover pumpkins are starting to turn into mush in the South Florida heat and humidity. They don’t just smell bad, the nasty gasses they emit also harm the atmosphere. But Vanina Armenteros’ first-grade science class at Pinecrest Elementary School is converting the orange gourds into something green. They’re one of 15 elementary schools in the Miami-Dade County composting their rotting jack-o-lanterns. “It helps the world to not make the air smell bad,” said 7-year-old pupil Koby Satin.

Food is one of the most common things we send to the landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and most of the time, those decorative pumpkins wind up in the trash.

“This was just an awesome opportunity fo

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