Have a sustainable Easter!

It's one week until Easter and with lots of Easter egg hunts and games being planned, there is a risk of creating unnecessary waste and buying items that will be single use only.  Tonnes of packaging, toys and decorations are thrown out each year on festive days such as Easter, but with some sensible shopping choices and more crafty thinking, you can still have the same amount of fun but with less impact on the environment.

Here are some useful ideas or choices you can make when celebrating Easter this year:

🐥 Many chocolate brands are selling chocolate eggs without plastic packaging now; make sure you look for these and recycle the foil and cardboard appropriately

🐥  Buying ethical chocolate is also important;  look for brands that have Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance logos, or that are made without palm oil (often found in chocolate products as an emulsifier)

🐥 Try to make long-lasting or reusable decorations out of paper or material; keep them safe and remember to take them out each year

🐥 Make an Easter egg trail using painted stones; these can be used over and over, or you can even get children to paint their own stones!

🐥 Try making your own natural dyes and use them to colour egg shells and make patterns; cabbage, spinach, turmeric and blueberries work really well

🐥 Have a go at making your own hot cross buns; they're easy to do and just need a little bit of time to allow the dough to rise;  BBC Good Food has some good recipes

🐥 When planning an Easter meal, try to think about where the food is coming from and buy local/seasonal as much as you can

🐥 And finally, get outside and see what nature is doing at this time of year!  If you have a local farm, go and visit and see the newborn animals and buy some local produce while you're there

🐥🐰👒 Happy Green Easter! 👒🐰🐥