How to Have an Eco-Friendly Easter

Feel free to share

How to Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Easter

If you think you have to give up all of your favorite traditions to celebrate an eco-friendly Easter, think again. It’s easy to enjoy everything from dyeing eggs to making Easter baskets while still having a green holiday.

I have to admit that Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colors, decorations, and traditions. When I decided to live a more eco-friendly life, I was determined to make sure I didn’t have to give up anything I love about the holiday.

Fortunately, I found it was actually incredibly easy to celebrate an eco-friendly Easter by following these simple tips.

1. Have an Eco-Friendly Easter Egg Hunt

Easter basket with green grass filled with brightly colored polka dot Easter eggs

If you want to make your Easter egg hunt more eco-friendly, you have several options. First, you can hide your naturally dyed Easter eggs. Once everyone finds all the eggs, use them to make egg salad or another egg dish. Don’t forget to compost your egg shells so you don’t have any waste.

If you prefer reusable eggs for sticking these outstanding eco-friendly Easter egg fillers inside, don’t go for the cheap plastic eggs that break easily and you can’t recycle.

Instead, choose these plastic-free fillable Easter eggs that are BPA-free, non-toxic, and made from a blend of upcycled newspaper and natural rice paste.

They’re large enough to easily hold special treats inside, and durable enough that you can use them year after year. However, if one happens to wear down and you can’t use it anymore, it’s also completely compostable.

Wood eggs are another eco-friendly option for your Easter egg hunt. You can buy blank hollow wooden eggs that everyone can decorate. You can also get hollow wooden eggs that already come painted in lovely pastel colors using non-toxic paint.

If you’re interested in something a little softer, one great option to consider are these adorable handmade felt Easter eggs. They come with a little pocket in the front where you can stick candy or small trinkets.

Another excellent option are these fillable cloth eggs that come in beautiful prints and colors. They’re also the perfect size to hold little treats. Plus, they’re fully washable, so you can use them year after year.

2. Use Eco-Friendly Easter Grass

That little green grass is ubiquitous with Easter, and it gets everywhere. As a little kid, I can remember finding it around the house in the middle of July. I asked my mom why it was there, and she said maybe the Easter Bunny was hopping through.

While Easter grass is a fun decoration, it’s not the least bit eco-friendly. It just ends up in the trash and takes forever to breakdown. Fortunately, you have several options when you want to make this tradition more eco-friendly.

You can shred green construction paper and recycle it after the holiday. If you don’t care about the color, you can simply reuse paper from your shredder.

If you don’t have time to make your own paper Easter grass, Eco Grass has colorful crinkle cut paper made from 100% recycled paper. When you’re done, you can reuse it or put it with the paper recycling.

You can also get creative by picking something that you can reuse after the holiday, such as fabric, ribbon, or a scarf.

If you don’t want to have any waste at all, use seed paper for your Easter grass. I love this seed paper because it comes in bright colors and pastel colors. It’s also made in the USA with 100% post-industrial recycled content and vegetable-based dyes.

When Easter is over, simply plant the paper in the ground and watch the flowers pop up!

3. Make an Eco-Friendly Easter Basket

Once you’ve picked out what type of eco-friendly Easter grass you’re going to use, it’s time to put together an eco-friendly Easter basket. First, skip the cheap and flimsy plastic Easter baskets and go with something you can use year after year.

I bought my son this willow basket to use as his Easter basket. For the first few years, I just put some goodies in because he was too young to understand what was going on.

Now that he’s older, I let him decorate his basket with ribbon so it’s more personalized. When he eventually gets old enough that he doesn’t want an Easter basket anymore, I’ll then be able to reuse the basket around the house for storage.

When you’re trying to come up with ideas for what to put in the Easter basket, consider some eco-friendly options. For example, wooden toys are a good choice because they last longer than plastic. Here are several other fantastic fillers for an eco-friendly basket.

4. Naturally Dye Easter Eggs

Dyeing Easter eggs is a fun tradition, especially with children. It’s neat to try out different techniques to see what colors and designs you can create.

But artificial food dyes used to color Easter eggs are chemical substances made from petroleum. Some dyes may contain cancer-causing contaminants, and others can cause allergic reactions.

If you want to dye Easter eggs but you’re looking for a more eco-friendly way to do it, you have another option.

Did you know you can easily make natural dye from things you have in your kitchen right now? Instead of throwing your food scraps away, put them to work by using them to make homemade dye.

Once you’re done creating your homemade natural dye, you can then use it to naturally dye Easter eggs.

5. Choose Eco-Friendly Easter Candy

Yes, chocolate bunnies are cute. And yes, I’m the type of person who enjoys eating chocolate bunny ears. I can’t explain it. There’s just something so good about them.

But think about how those chocolate bunnies come packaged. Most come in a foil wrapper, that’s inside a box, that’s wrapped in plastic. That’s A LOT of trash for one piece of chocolate.

Plus, that doesn’t even take into consideration the harm done to the land and farmers during cocoa production.

However, you don’t have to skip giving out chocolate to celebrate an eco-friendly Easter. Instead, just choose a Fair Trade Certified chocolate brand, which makes sure cocoa farmers have safe and environmentally friendly working conditions and are paid fairly.

Here are some of the best Fair Trade Certified chocolate brands to consider:

Alter Eco

Alter Eco uses Fair Trade Certified and organic ingredients in its chocolates. It’s also a carbon neutral company, and it packages its chocolates in compostable wrappers. A few popular options include:

UnReal

UnReal is the candy we buy for our son for several reasons. The company uses less sugar, which is always a plus. Plus, it uses Non-GMO Project verified and Fair Trade Certified ingredients.

Additionally, our son is allergic to eggs and peanuts. UnReal has candy that’s vegan and made with almond butter, which gives us peace of mind that it’s safe for him to eat. A few of his favorites include:

Endangered Species Chocolate

If you want your chocolate to give back to the world, then choose Endangered Species Chocolate. Not only does the company use Fair Trade Certified ingredients and environmentally sustainable growing practices, but it also donates 10% of net profits every year to protect wildlife and habitats.

While you won’t find any bars with bunnies on them (because, let’s face it, bunnies aren’t exactly endangered) you can get a variety pack to try out multiple flavors or get some bars with your child’s favorite wild animal on them.

Some great options include:

There are plenty of other environmentally friendly candy choices to consider. Even though these great eco-friendly candy options are recommend for Halloween, there’s no reason you can’t use them for your Easter basket.

Celebrating an Eco-Friendly Easter

Thanks to these simple changes, my family and I can continue to enjoy all of our favorite Easter traditions without worrying about the harm they cause the environment. Try out a few on your own to see how simple it is to celebrate an eco-friendly Easter.

Make Every Holiday More Eco-Friendly

Now that you see how easy it is to celebrate an eco-friendly Easter, are you interested in making all of your holidays more eco-friendly? Then be sure to check out some of our other popular posts: