How to Make Eco-Friendly Easter Baskets

Easter often comes with a fair share of waste, including chocolate wrappers, plastic grass, inexpensive toys packaged in plastic, and of course, plastic eggs.

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Unfortunately, after the holiday, most of these items end up in landfills, where they remain for centuries.

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Here’s how you can make eco-friendly Easter baskets and celebrate a low-waste holiday:

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Easter baskets

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The first thing that comes to mind when we think of Easter gifts is the Easter basket. Instead of purchasing a single-use plastic basket every year, you could get creative by repurposing a flower pot or using woven baskets that might be lying around unused. If you want to buy a basket, you can often find secondhand woven or cloth baskets at thrift stores. You can wash and use it again every year.

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Easter grass

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Rather than opting for the traditional Easter grass, which is made of plastic, you can explore alternatives such as natural raffia, shredded newspaper, crinkle paper, tissue paper, fabric scraps, or edible, candy Easter grass — you may already have some of this from e-commerce packages! If you don't have any materials on hand to recycle as a basket filler, your basket might still look just as lovely without it.

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Candies

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Sustainable alternatives to candies exist too. For a low-waste Easter, avoid individually wrapped candies if you can. Instead, portion out large bags of treats such as jelly beans and candy eggs into reused jars. Opt for candies wrapped in paper boxes. Another sustainable option is to bake cookies and wrap them in paper or wax paper.

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Toys

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Ask any kid about their favorite part of Easter and their response would be the stuff. To make a sustainable Easter basket, you don’t need to skip the gifts. Instead of putting toys that the kids might only use for a few days, put stuff that they’ll use time and time again. It could be anything from beach toys and swimsuits to beeswax crayons and gardening tools. If you would still like to include a toy, try buying a secondhand one.

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Eggs

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Plastic Easter eggs are so cheap that it’s tempting to buy new ones every year. A plastic-free easter basket could use alternative material eggs like paper mache eggs, hollow wooden eggs, or painted wooden eggs. If you are planning to use hard-boiled eggs, make sure you use natural egg dye. You can also make your paper eggs. It’s OK if you can't find these alternatives. Just buy plastic Easter eggs and reuse them every year. It's all about reducing waste.

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