Halloween will be a lot different this year but Welshpool residents are still urged to make sure their leftover pumpkins don't meet a frightening end by being chucked away with the rest of the rubbish.
And Powys County Council has said that left over pumpkins don’t have to fit into the food caddy on rubbish collection days, as they will still be taken if left alongside.
Across the country, 25% of all pumpkins bought at Halloween are thrown out with the normal household rubbish. That means a whopping 18,000 tonnes of pumpkin ends up in the bin which would be enough for everyone in the UK to enjoy a bowl of pumpkin soup, Powys County Council has said.
Powys residents are expected to go through around 15,000 pumpkins this Halloween, creating around 75 tonnes of extra food waste in the process. Sadly, most of won’t even be for eating.
The council's recycling teams are urging residents to make the most of the insides of the pumpkins for recipes such as pumpkin soup, pumpkin tart or even pumpkin lasagne.
The seeds can also be baked for a snack.
You can find loads of recipe ideas on the Love Food Hate Waste website at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
Any bits of the pumpkin that aren't used, including the shell, should be recycled by using the weekly household food waste collection service.
Not only will this stop food waste going into landfill, it can create green energy and produce an environmentally-sustainable fertiliser to help Welsh farmers grow more food, the council said.
Cabinet Member for Waste and Recycling, Cllr Heulwen Hulme, said: “Most people in Powys do a great job of recycling their food waste each week. So this year, we really hope that they will keep up the good work and add any leftover bits of Halloween pumpkins to their food waste caddy.
“Some of the pumpkins can be quite large, so leaving it alongside the caddy is just fine. We'll pick it up and make sure it’s sent off for recycling with the rest of the county’s food waste.
“It is fascinating to know that for every 10 tonnes of food waste we recycle, we help to create enough green electricity to power the average household for a year and goes a long way to support Wales' drive to create more green energy through anaerobic digestion plants.”
More information on food waste, recycling, your kerbside recycling containers, or for handy hints and tips on what can and can't be recycled, visit https://en.powys.gov.uk/recycle