Smash your Halloween pumpkin 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at Tuscarora Creek Park, and the town sends it to compost. Free, with a drop-off through Nov. 8.
Leesburg will hold its first Pumpkin Smash the day after Halloween. Bring your old pumpkins to Tuscarora Creek Park, 425 Solitude Court SE, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1. Smash them, and the town sends the pieces to a food waste composting site.
The event is free. The town’s Sustainability Office and its Environmental Advisory Commission are running it, according to the town’s announcement Tuesday.
“Last year, we collected over a ton of pumpkins at Ida Lee for recycling,” Sustainability Manager Deb Moran said in the release. “We’re looking forward to building on that success this year by recycling even more pumpkins and making the collection event fun for the whole community.”
What is happening on the day
Every pumpkin is welcome, including carved jack-o’-lanterns and painted ones. Stop at the commission’s tent first with a painted or decorated pumpkin. The commission will help clean off the paint before it is smashed, the town’s Pumpkin Smash page says.
There is more than smashing. The town lists:
- ornament making with “tree cookies,” slices of branch, with town staff
- Loudoun Wildlife on its Leave the Leaves campaign, with tips on handling fall leaves
- the Virginia Cooperative Extension with pumpkin recipes and a pumpkin seed trail mix activity
- a free Leesburg Cookie Company cookie for the first 50 children, and more for sale
- photos with the commission’s new mascot, making its first appearance
Why the town is doing it
A pumpkin thrown in the trash rots in a landfill without oxygen, which gives off methane, a strong greenhouse gas. Composted, it becomes a soil conditioner instead. The town’s page says more than 1 billion pounds of pumpkins go to U.S. landfills every year after Halloween.
The smash builds on the town’s year-round food scrap drop-off. That site, in the Liberty Street parking lot at 204 Liberty St. SW, is open 24 hours a day and free. It has taken 34,937 pounds of food waste so far in 2026, against 31,264 pounds in all of 2025, the town’s food waste composting page shows. Monster Organics empties and washes the bins each week.
What it means for you
Keep your pumpkins after Halloween instead of putting them in the trash can. If you cannot make it Nov. 1, take unpainted pumpkins to the drop-off at Tuscarora Creek Park through Sunday, Nov. 8. Unpainted pumpkins and pumpkin scraps are also accepted any time at the Liberty Street drop-off, but the town asks you to break big ones down first.
Painted pumpkins need the cleanup station, so bring those on Nov. 1. The park’s playground and its trails are on our parks and trails page. What goes in the trash and recycling the rest of the year is on our trash and recycling page, and more November events are on things to do this month.
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