Easter is a time when we can all look forward to (hopefully) warmer weather and getting together with friends and family to celebrate new life. But with all the plastic-wrapped eggs, holiday travel, and food waste, it's not always the greenest celebration. This year, why not try making Easter a bit a more environmentally friendly? It won’t spoil the fun, but it will cut your carbon footprint and save you some money too.
Rethink your Easter eggs Those foil-wrapped, chocolate eggs piled high in the supermarket look inviting, but their environmental impact adds up. Instead, skip the heavy use of packaging and choose eggs with simple cardboard wrapping. Alternatively make your own eggs using moulds and Fairtrade chocolate or ‘nest’ cakes from corn flakes or rice crispies with mini eggs on them.
You could decorate homemade wooden eggs, then keep them for next year. Don’t forget about traditional real eggs either. Dyeing hard-boiled eggs with natural dyes like turmeric, beetroot and red cabbage is great fun, and a basket of real eggs looks incredibly natural and festive.
Avoid plastic and get creative As well as the plastic packaging most commercially produced chocolate eggs, that plastic grass that fills some Easter baskets is terrible for the planet. Instead, shredding old magazines, or use soft reusable scraps of colourful fabric. To achieve a really natural Easter basket or door wreath, you could use moss, dried grass, leaves or flowers you’ve gathered from the garden.