3. Egg Candy Containers
Shaking the little plastic eggs to hear the jellybeans and whoppers jingle about inside is one of the fun and surprising elements of Easter. It was fun not knowing what different candies your parents picked out for you! Unfortunately, those plastic eggs can’t be recycled and are more wasteful than they’re worth. Unless you have saved your eggs from Easters past, it may be best to explore new options. Over on Sew, Mama, Sew you can find instructions on crafting some secret fabric eggs. You won’t hear the jingle but the surprise will be just as nice. Why not have your kids find little containers, like mint tins or boxes, and have them decorate their very own candy containers.
The possibilities for an alternative Easter basket are endless. Only a few simple changes are needed to make this upcoming Easter holiday a little bit easier on the environment. You can easily keep the same traditions and update them for your eco way of life! What sort of steps are you taking to make Easter more eco-friendly? Do you have any other tips and tricks that you would like to share? I would love to read your ideas so feel free to leave any comments or links.
[Easter grass image by Niina C via Flickr Creative Commons, Basket image by dianecordell via Flickr Creative Commons, Plastic grass image by Lost Vegas via Flickr Creative Commons, Easter eggs image by catd_mitchell via Flickr Creative Commons]
About Maria
I LOVE all these suggestions! Especially the use of yarn! After St. Patty’s day it would be a great reason to reuse a bunch of green-colored things to make the “grass”
. I was thinking about the plastic eggs, and I thought… re-purposed baby food jars! They are glass, so care would need to be taken that children don’t drop them onto hard surfaces and break them, but the lids can easily be decorated, the whole thing can be wrapped in fabric, they are kinda small like those plastic eggs…and you still get the “jingle”! 
Plus, they can be recycled or re-used again later for other things.
great ideas! I love the idea of using green things from St.Patty’s day. It’s such a great way to get a lot of mileage out of the things that we do buy.
Another option for eggs is real ones! Not Martha did a slew of amazing Easter egg projects lately — a bit time-consuming, but gorgeous:
http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/easter-surprise-eggs-the-easy-version/
I’m definitely hoping to get one of those egg-topper-chopper things by the time I have kids.
And the local eggs I can usually be pretty colorful, with some white, some brown, and one or two greenish ones, if one didn’t want to work with food coloring!
Wow! Great link, and yes! Real eggs are an awesome idea. They’re obviously reusable and the decorating with the kids is a great way for them to get involved with their basket.
Popping in a week later because I found some other beautiful options for decorating eggs with natural dyes today!
http://boulderlocavore.blogspot.com/2011/04/naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-and-best.html
http://adventurescooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/herb-stenciled-easter-eggs.html
I almost can’t believe how pretty they are!
They are so beautiful! What fantastic links, thank you !
Cute ideas! I hadn’t realized how wasteful Easter products are. Why not go grab some real grass from your backyard or nearby park–it would make the basket smell nice too! The yarn is a good idea–you could also use strips of fabric/cloth. Honestly, the plastic grass usually used is just plain ugly anyways and it makes that harsh crinkling sound so I’m going to do something different this year. Thanks!
I like the strips of of fabric idea. You can find really nice springy sheets and pillowcases at your thrift store to tear into strips. I’m glad to hear you’re going to try something new and fun this year, let us know what you come up with!
Don’t forget to make sure that your Easter egg hunts are on toxin free properties. http://tinyurl.com/4xty358