Homeless in Vancouver

Homeless in Vancouver: Fake plastic pumpkins arrive on West Broadway just in time for Halloween

by Stanley Q. Woodvine on October 29th, 2018 at 1:31 PM
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      Plastic pumpkins!

      In a city that made such a fuss in late spring about banning the restaurant-use of plastic straws and white foam-plastic containers, at least one big box Vancouver arts and crafts retailer is selling life-size plastic pumpkins made of expanded polystyrene (EPS), a.k.a. Styrofoam.

      For a mere $7.50, the handicrafts store Michaels on West Broadway will sell you a medium-size “pumpkin” made of Styrofoam and painted either white, blue, or the more traditional orange.

      Why anyone would buy one I cannot say. I am not aware that real pumpkins have become prohibitively expensive, or scarce, or that there is any such thing as a “pumpkin allergy”.

      And whether you can carve artful faces and designs into one of these plastic, facsimile squash is an open question—one that goes unanswered by the product labelling. But there is no question of hollowing one out and placing a lit candle inside of it.

      While some of the space on the attached leaflet is given to extolling the virtues of owning plastic pumpkinry—”No fuss, no mess. Use year after year. Classical seasonal décor. Lightweight design.” More space on the leaflet is given over to warning the potential buyer about the extreme flammability of the product:

      This product is FLAMMABLE. Keep away from heat or flame. This item is not a toy and should be used for decorative purposes only. For indoor use only.

      We didn’t have bright blue pumpkins when I was a kid, so there’s that.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      Furthermore, on the butt-end of every so-called pumpkin (to buttress the point, as it were) is a sticker as coruscating as an oil slick, bearing a similar warning:

      This product is FLAMMABLE. Keep away from heat or flame, use LED candles only. For indoor decorative use only.

      I cannot categorically say how the availability of these nonecycleable horrors has affected the Halloweenscape that I see in the various neigbourhoods where I regularly collect returnable beverage containers.

      However, with the time for trick or treating just around the corner, I have been taking my usual interest in the pumpkins that many residents put out (and that some residents evidently put so much effort into decorating) for the delight of their neighbours.

      This year I have been surprised to see a large number of dull-looking, pristine (uncut) pumpkins guarding stairs and entrance ways. But whether any of them (all orange, by the way) have been of the Styrofoam variety I cannot say.

      I also cannot say (or understand) why people would buy  environmentally unfriendly Styrofoam pumpkins in 2018, or why stores are even allowed to sell them.

      Following every year’s Halloween, tens of thousands of real pumpkins end up in residential organics bins across Metro Vancouver, where they break down to useful compost in a scary short time.

      I will be interested to see where any of these Styrofoam pumpkins end up—garbage-wise.

      However, these Styrofoam pumpkins cannot be recycled in British Columbia at the present time and are only fit for the Dumpster and ultimately the landfill, according to a tweet from the Recycling Council of B.C.:

      "The RecycleBC program only includes packaging foam at this time at participating [Return-It recycling] depots. These pumpkins, once no longer usable, would unfortunately be garbage."

      I can only agree with the Recycling Council of B.C. when it suggests that people "go with a real pumpkin instead!"

      Another thing that shouldn’t be legal: with 555 West Broadway leased year-round and no longer available as a fireworks outlet, a car parked further west on West Broadway points the way to fireworks on Cambie Street.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine
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