Eco Easter

Easter is on March 23 this year — the earliest date any of us has seen in our lifetimes. For those of you superheroes with junior superheroes expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny, Recycla has some ideas for you to consider:

If you replace your child’s Easter basket every year, Recycla encourages you to cut back on waste by using a basket (or other container) that can be used year after year. Recycla’s two daughters have had the same baskets since they were born and they’ll probably last until they have their own children.

(Easter 2003 — When Recycla’s daughters were 4 and 2.)

Do you notice the contents of the baskets above? Recycla is not a big fan of filling Easter baskets with too much candy, as her younger daughter will eat it all in an hour and her older daughter will more or less ignore it until ~~Recycla eats it herself~~ it is thrown away.

Instead, the Easter Bunny puts some candy in the girls’ baskets and then adds some other little gifts. As Recycla is also not a fan of cheap plastic toys, the Easter Bunny wisely chooses other things, such as books, art supplies, etc.

This year, the Easter Bunny will be putting the following into Recycla’s daughters’ Easter baskets:

A new book for each girl
New water bottles in hot pink and electric purple.
A keychain compass for the nine-year-old girl, who fancies herself a 21st century Nancy Drew.
A new bracelet for the seven-year-old, who is a fashionista. Recycla is lucky enough to know a terrific jewelry designer, Lori Anderson, and so went to her for something pretty.
Flower seeds for each girl’s personal garden.

In the past, the Easter Bunny has also brought fun socks, hair ribbons and clips, CDs, and other assorted non-disposable items.

And then there’s the candy…

Recycla is going to very honest now and confess that the Easter Bunny does not put organic chocolate and jelly beans in the girls’ baskets. She meant to do so this year, but lost her head in the Target candy aisle and instead bought cheap chocolate. If you want to truly shame Recycla and do a better job than she did, she can tell you that Whole Foods has some truly divine Easter candy displays that include jelly beans, organic and/or Free Trade chocolates, and other assorted yummies. If any of you has ever eaten organic jelly beans, Recycla would like to hear your thoughts about how they taste.

For many people, Easter would not be Easter without dyeing Easter eggs. Recycla did this when she was a young eco-hero and she loved it. Oddly enough, Recycla has not continued this tradition with her own young caped crusaders, so she does not have any anecdotes to share. However, she did find directions for dyeing eggs naturally here.

Finally, Recycla encourages you not to buy any of that plastic “grass” to line your child’s Easter basket, as it’s a poor use of resources, utterly useless, and just makes a mess on your carpet anyway. If you need to cushion dyed eggs, Recycle suggests that you use shredded paper (and recycle it after Easter) or maybe even a new t-shirt for your young superhero.

Those are just some of Recycla’s ideas for Easter ’08. She’d love to hear other people’s thoughts.

If you have any ideas to share, please leave a comment and let everyone know!

4 Responses to Eco Easter

Pingback: Easter is too damn early this year « Jen on the Edge
Melissa | March 14, 2008 at 6:05 pm | Reply

The bunny reuses baskets and plastic eggs for the egg hunt each year…and instead of a mountain of candy, we get sidewalk chalk, new kites, replacement shovels for the sandbox and bubbles!
barbra | March 15, 2008 at 12:14 am | Reply

We, too, have used the same baskets and plastic eggs every year. But the baskets are looking a little ratty now so I was thinking I’d get new, strong & sturdy ones for this year. I use a little shredded paper for the bottom of the baskets, which I then re-use for presents “wrapped” in bags.

I usually give them little gift items like a little doll or matchbox car, a book, stickers, etc. Socks are a great idea. I will have to use that one this year!
The Guider | March 17, 2008 at 7:09 pm | Reply

We have little felt bags and tiny tiny wooden eggs and they have to find all 48 in the garden before they can be exchanged for the good stuff – ie the chocolate eggs.