Save Our Happy Place is a climate action newsletter dedicated to making it easy for you to help protect the places you love from climate change, written by Lindsay Nunez. Read on for simple yet effective climate actions, and sustainable + eco-friendly lifestyle tips.

Hey there sunshine! Welcome back to Save Our Happy Place your weekly pop of environmental and climate activism. This week we’re covering how sustainability can add a little fun to your life and a few ways to do that at the close of the spooky season this weekend.

More Fun, Less Waste

Make The Most of Traditions While Consuming Less

I’ve long been a firm believer that making a lasting impact on the mitigation of climate change on individual levels comes from meeting people where they are. This comes in the form of offering individuals more and better options, as opposed to shaming or taking something away from them. Showing that you can embrace who you are and what you love to do while still being sustainable is empowering and a relief. It does not have to be a sacrifice. In fact, slowing down and being more mindful of not only your day-to-day life but also your traditions is a phenomenal way to add value to that experience and extend the fun.

As we dive head first into the holiday season, I invite you to slow down with me. The hustle and bustle coupled with the pressures of mass consumption can leave us making hasty, wasteful decisions. But there are ways that slowing down and thinking twice can extend the festivities, and the time spent with loved ones, all while costing less and benefiting the planet. Below is one way you can do that. Instead of just throwing out your decorative gourdes and jack-o-lanterns, extend their lives and the fun interactions you can have around them while keeping the pumpkin out of landfills.

Make the Most of That Pumpkin

Over 1 billion pounds of pumpkins are tossed in landfills each year in the U.S. alone. Food waste, such as your jolly jack-o-lantern, is a major contributor to greenhouse gas omissions. In the U.S., food waste has the equivalent annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. So now that Halloween has passed and we continue deep into decorative gourde season, keep the fun going and make the most of your pumpkin while simultaneously lowering your food waste.

1. Smash It, Don’t Trash

Keep the party going! Throw and/or attend a pumpkin smash party this weekend. Gather the crew and collectively take out any built-up frustrations around climate change on your pumpkin. Be sure to do the smashing in a centralized location that can easily be added to compost.

2. Roast the Seeds

For a delicious snack, salad topper, garnish for smoothies, just give those seeds a good roasting. Season the seeds to your liking and then roast at moderate heat of 350°F (177ºC) for about 12 to 15 minutes, tossing every 5 minutes.

3. Puree the Pumpkin Flesh

Keep the gourde season flavors going by making a pumpkin puree to add a kick to cookies, smoothies, or soups. First, roast the pumpkin, then scrape out the flesh. From there use a food processor or blender to make the pumpkin smooth.

4. Make a vegetable broth

Add the pumpkin guts, or stringy part, to your next batch of vegetable broth.

5. Compost, Compost, Compost

After actually consuming the food, the next best way to avoid waste is to compost. If you have a regular composting practice, hooray! Be sure to remove any candles and toxic paints. If not, many towns and cities will host a pumpkin drop-off for city-wide compost projects. Finally, you can let the leftover pumpkin parts decompose in your backyard. Dig a hole, put the pumpkin inside, and cover the hole with dirt and leaves.

Some Rays of the Sunshine

The Headlines We’re Happy See

• Brazil elected a President with a proven history of decreasing deforestation in the Amazon. - Read More

• Greece ran its entire electrical grid on 100% renewables for the first time. - Read More

• US unveils $1 billion effort to electrify school buses. - Read More

• 100 UK universities pledge fossil fuel divestment. Read More