The City of Santa Maria Utilities Department hosted a pumpkin-smashing event on Sunday, Nov. 20.
Participants were invited to bring any size and quantity of pumpkins and gourds, which they got to throw into a collection bin or at targets on the ground.
The event was created to be a fun way for the community to divert pumpkins from ending up in a landfill.
"This is the first year of the event, so we're very excited to see where it goes from here," said Engel & Grey General Operations Manager, Dustin Bumgardner
"So anybody that's got pumpkins leftover from Halloween or Thanksgiving can bring it out. They're going to smash them. They can throw it out, roll off. Ben and all the pumpkins that came out today are going to come out to our compost site where we'll turn them into a beautiful harvest, blend compost, keep them out of the landfill."
If you could not attend the pumpkin smashing event, pumpkins and other food waste may be placed into the organics container for collection.
