Looking for ways to celebrate Easter with less carbon footprint?
Let's have a sustainable Easter celebration with these tips!
1. Prepare for the egg hunt
Buy the eggs from farmers market that are open in your city, or better directly from the farm. They usually put some self-service vending machines, or small self-service shops. If you're in Switzerland, websites like Farmy have a selection of products from farmers close to your area. One of them is Emmentaler bakery goods that uses only natural ingredients and is certified by Bio Suisse.
2. Make natural Easter egg dye
Decorating Easter eggs is a decades-old tradition, but using a store-bought kit can be harmful to the environment. So let’s get creative and use what we have at home to dye our eggs with unique colors:
🧡Chili powder : orange
💛Turmeric: yellow
💙Red cabbage: dark blue
🤎Red onions skin: brown
💙Spinach: light blue
3. Get creative and do some DIY decorations
There are three ideas that we absolutely love and that you can give a try to.
--> If you are looking for a placeholder, you can try to transform an egg shell into a base for a plant or some herbs. How does that work? First of all, wash carefully the egg shell you will use. Once they dried, you can fill them with soil and the flower or herb that you love the most. Use a toothpick to hold your guest’s name. Best part of this? you don't need to throw them away. Plant them in a vase or let them grow and flourish in your garden.
--> If you want to do something fun with the kids, transform toilet paper roll into bunnies! Gather different materials you can use to do the nose, eyes, lips, etc., such as colors, colored pieces of paper, pens, buttons, scissors. Once you have created the face of the bunny in the roll, cut two strips out of a paper roll, so you can use it as the bunny’s ears.
--> Try some homemade scented candles made with soy wax and naturally fragranced with essential oils. Clean and dry the eggshell. Discard cracked eggs as hot wax could leak out. Glue the wick into the shell. Then, melt the soy wax in a moderate temperature. Once melted, take the wax off the heat, and let cool for 5 minutes. Dye and scent. Stir mica powder and essential oils (I like lavander but feel free to use what you prefer!) into the melted wax. Carefully pour the wax into the egg shells just below the rim. And don't worry about getting wax on the shell. You can simply scratch off any spills after the wax has cooled. The soy wax will come right off.
4. Give-up single-use plastics
These items include disposable plastic silverware, single-use grocery bags, and the clear plastic water bottles you might be buying during your shopping session for Easter.
5. Be mindful on the packaging of easter chocolate
Who does not love the chocolate egg or bunny: But turns out that Easter chocolate isn’t so great for the environment. Most of the brightly-colored foil coating on our treats, while technically recyclable if it’s clean, typically ends up in the landfill. A 2018 study, according to the article of Michael Addison from @direct365 , revealed that 3,000 tons of chocolate Easter packaging is generated every year in the UK alone. So let’s buy chocolate with less packaging possible and always opt for organic and Fair Trade-certified options.
Hopefully all of these GREENA Easter swaps help make this year a special one. If you have some Easter tips of your own, share them with us at #thegreenaproject or write us at the contact@thegreenaproject.com
Happy Easter!