Philadelphia students launch pumpkins into farm field to promote composting

By Wakisha Bailey

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — “If you look at this holiday season, there’s about 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins that actually end up in landfills,” Fox Chase Farm Administrator Dr. Mandy Manna said.

Students from the School District of Philadelphia undertook a challenge to help cut into that waste. The goal was to encourage others to not toss their discarded pumpkins and instead recycle them – while having some fun in the process.

Manna worked with engineering students from the Science Leadership Academy at Beeber.

“The challenge was creating a pumpkin launcher to be able to launch pumpkins for composting,” Manna said.

The students worked for a month on this project to create a variety of different pumpkin launchers of all sizes. Now they’re ready for you to get rid of your old Halloween pumpkins in style – launching them across a field like a Jalen Hurts deep ball to A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith.

The farm is holding an event on Saturday where you can use these launchers. The pumpkin remnants will then be used for compost and become nutrients for the soil.

The event kicks off on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fox Chase Farm, 8500 Pine Road, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Watch the video to see some pumpkin launchers go to work!

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