4 Tips for a more sustainable Easter

It’s Easter, what better time to relax and enjoy egg-cessive amounts of chocolate with your family. Easter egg hunts, the Easter bunny and two bank holidays, what’s not to love? And, with families allowed to meet again for the first time since December, this year looks like being one to remember.

With all the egg-citement, it’s easy to forget the impact our actions have on the environment. As with every holiday, the drive to spend leads to excess waste. To help reduce your impact this Easter, we have put together four helpful tips:

Buy eggs with reduced packaging

Single use plastics, always at the top of the list!

Every year in the UK, we buy around 80 million easter eggs, producing some 8000 tonnes of packaging waste. Recently there has been a shift from retailers to improve the sustainability of their products. Retail gazette has picked out some of the best solutions on offer this year, we have highlighted two of our favourites.

Aldi is removing plastic packaging from its Easter egg range. By switching to pulp trays on its remaining egg lines. Its aim is that all Easter egg packaging in England and Wales will be plastic-free by the end of the year. This will see the removal of an outstanding 900 tonnes of plastic each year.

The Co-op is also removing plastic packaging from its Easter eggs. It aims to end the use of plastic packaging and windows for all five of its hollow Fairtrade Easter eggs, saving more than 14 tonnes of unnecessary plastic.

Reduce food waste

With the chance to meet up with family and friends for the first time since December, many of us will be enjoying a festive feast this April. However, around 15 – 20% of all food bought in the UK is thrown away, and the holidays are a major contributor.

To avoid adding to the 4.4 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions produced annually by food loss, we have identified a few simple rules to follow:

• Buy what you eat! 65% of UK adults admit to buying too much food. Ensuring you buy what you are likely to eat can avoid unnecessary waste and reduce your shopping bills. Preparation is key to achieving this. Before going to the shop, check your cupboards to see what you have and make a list of what you need.
• Use your leftovers to create delicious dishes! Leftovers don’t have to be boring, sitting in the back of the fridge until they are finally thrown away. This Easter, try something new. The internet is full of creative options to transform your scraps. The food network has highlighted 25 Delicious Ways to Reinvent Your Easter Leftovers. Why not give one a go?
• If all else fails, freeze your food… After 3 days of eating the same leftovers, they can seem less than appealing. But, in 3 weeks-time it could become the perfect lunch. What foods can you freeze? BBC Good Food has provided an easy guide to help you all year round.

Go Vegan this Easter

According to a study by PNAS, emissions contributing to global warming would be cut by 70%, if everyone were to go Vegan. This would be enough to reverse the harmful effects of climate change.

Not everyone wants to give up animal products in their entirety. However, small changes can make a big difference. And, with a growing range of products on offer, it’s easier than ever before to make a start this Easter.

The number of vegans in the UK grew 40% in 2020, and there has been a rise in quality products catering for the growing market. Most retailers now stock Vegan Easter Eggs, and even some of our favourite takeaways are providing delicious meat free options… Vegan KFC, anyone?

Get creative, make your own decorations

Spring is here, and the flowers are starting to bloom. As they add colour to parks and gardens, decorations will do the same inside the home. To avoid waste this Easter, sidestep single use decorations, especially containing plastics or glitter. For a more sustainable solution, create your own. It can be egg-cellent fun…

As well as helping to prevent waste this Easter, creating your own decorations provides creative entertainment for the whole family. There are countless DIY decorations ideas on the internet. Instead of buying new material to make decorations, reuse everyday items that would otherwise end up in the bin. To give you a helping hand, DIY n Crafts have picked out 105 designs you could try this year. What have you got to lose?