SUNNYSIDE — Give your leftover jack-o-lanterns a second life this year instead of letting them rot on your doorstep.
The NYC Compost Project at Queens Botanical Garden will host its second annual Pumpkin Smash at the Sunnyside Greenmarket this weekend, where visitors will be able to destroy their Halloween pumpkins and gourds so the garden can turn them into compost.
Partcipants will put their pumpkins into trash cans and use ice scrapers to smash them up. The remains will be used to nourish the city's street trees and community gardens.
"Pumpkin Smash takes something very fun — smashing pumpkins to smithereens — and uses it to engage and educate New Yorkers about the importance of compost," Jeremy Teperman, compost project coordinator, said in a statement about the event.
The Pumpkin Smash will take place Saturday at the greenmarket, at Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.