Bring your jack-o’-lanterns to two Forest Preserve District of Will County Pumpkin Smash programs to give them a second life as compost.

The programs are set from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, at Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Bolingbrook and Plum Creek Nature Center in Crete Township.

“Participants can pound, roll or drop their pumpkins until they’re smushed into smaller pieces for composting, which is a better option than sending them to the landfill,” the forest preserve district said in a news release.

For details, visit the Event Calendar at ReconnectWithNature.org.

Heather Van Zyl, facility supervisor at Plum Creek, said people will have many options for destroying their pumpkins during the events.

“At Plum Creek, participants can start breaking down their whole pumpkins by rolling them down the big hill, aiming for the target,” Van Zyl said in the release. “Or they can be thrown off Squirrel’s Treehouse.”

Once the process begins, the chunks can be gathered for further destruction at smash stations.

Both forest preserve locations will feature vendors, refreshments and fun activities, according to the release.

The activities also are important because composting keeps waste out of landfills, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and creates natural fertilizer for soil, according to the forest preserve district.

“Keeping pumpkins out of the landfill is the No. 1 goal of [a] Pumpkin Smash,” Brittany Schaller, an interpretive naturalist at Hidden Oaks, said in the release.

About 80% of all pumpkins bought during October and November end up “in our already-overflowing landfills,” Schaller said. “This is a cause for concern.”

For those who don’t have compost capabilities at home, Pumpkin Smash events provide the perfect solution, Schaller said.

“People can walk away knowing they did the responsible thing with their pumpkins,” she said.

Pumpkin Smashes are regional events spearheaded by the DuPage County-based School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education to promote composting and the use of resources.

In 2024, 103 SCARCE-affiliated Pumpkin Smash programs composted more than 164 tons of pumpkins, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 118 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and diverting more than 35,000 gallons of water from landfills, according to the SCARCE website.