WITH Halloween on the way, West Oxfordshire residents are being asked to use their heads and remember to recycle their pumpkin lanterns after Halloween.

And a headless figure carrying a lantern and a food recycling bin, above, is being used to spread the message.

Pumpkins can either be composted at home, cut up and placed in the bin with the rest of a household’s food waste or placed next to the bin on collection day.

The pumpkins will be taken to the digester plant operated by Agrivert at Cassington, to be recycled to generate electricity and make fertiliser.

Last year more than 3,000 tonnes of food waste from the district was processed at the plant.

David Harvey, the council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “Our headless figure will hopefully encourage people to use their head and think twice about what they do with their pumpkins.

“Don’t just put them in your rubbish bins and send them to landfill – please leave them out as food waste so that they can be collected for recycling, or compost them at home.”