Donate Your Old Halloween costumes for the kids at Park Morton and Drop Your Old Pumpkins to DPW’s 9 food waste drop-off locations

Photo by PoPville Flickr user Clif Burns

“Dear PoPville,

You know those Halloween costumes that end up in the back of the closet taking up space and collecting dust? Well we want to put them to good use! Encounter Church is collecting Halloween costumes for the kids at Park Morton. We’ll wash, sort, pack, and store costumes until next year so you don’t have to!

Costumes can be dropped off at Encounter on Sunday mornings or during normal weekday business hours. The office is located at District Bridges, 3400 11th Street NW, Suite 200 (above Meridian Pint). Our door is on 11th Street between Meridian Pint and the former Good Silver. Look for the orange box upstairs!

If you have any questions, email [email protected].”

From DPW:

“Once the trick-or-treating is over, DC residents can put their pumpkins to good use by dropping them off at one of the DC Department of Public Works’ (DPW) 9 food waste drop-off locations. Carved and painted jack-o-lanterns will be composted along with other food scraps, while fully intact pumpkins will be donated to food rescue partners.

“Last year, the weekend after Halloween set the record for the highest volume of drop-offs, with 7,764 pounds collected,” said DPW Director Chris Shorter.  “With more and more residents utilizing our food waste drop-off’s each month, we expect to set a new record this year.”

Mayor Bowser kicked off DPW’s first citywide Food Waste Drop-Off program on Earth Day 2017. Through the free service, residents are able to drop-off food waste at designated farmers markets in all eight city wards. The food waste collected at these drop-off locations is composted locally at District community composting sites and at the Prince George’s County Organics Compost facility.

In addition to pumpkins, residents are encouraged to drop off the following types of food items: fruit and vegetable scraps; breads, grains, cereals, rice and pasta; coffee grounds, coffee filters and tea bags; egg shells; household flowers; and nutshells. Dairy, meat and fish items are not accepted.

Not able to part with your pumpkin just yet? That’s completely fine. DPW’s food waste drop-off program will accept pumpkins all season long.”