Halloween is over, and with the holidays on the way, many Americans are ready to ditch their pumpkins.

Experts say it’s not wise – or helpful to the environment – to trash a pumpkin. Instead, opt to take that pumpkin to a certified compost site, use it to help fertilize a garden or station it somewhere outside for wildlife to feed off.

Pumpkins that are thrown a way the traditional way, in a landfill, turn into methane over time. Methane is a “harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2),” reports the U.S. Department of Energy.

The demand for pumpkins in the U.S. has been increasing. Production of pumpkins for all uses rose 31% from 1.46 billion pounds in 2000 to 1.91 billion pounds in 2014, according to the USDA. The agency said the increase reflects reflects the demand for ornamental and food-use pumpkins.

Roughly 900,000 tons of pumpkins are thrown into landfills each year in the U.S., according to the World Economic Forum about.