Greener Easter traditions

Lynn and Corey from Celebrate Green give us some advice to help the Easter Bunny green things up.

Tue, Mar 31 2009 at 9:05 AM

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Organic Foods

Do you get visited by the bunny this time of year? Would you like it if he was a little more eco-friendly? Lynn and Corey from the Celebrate Green website and authors of the book Celebrate Green kindly offered to give us (and the bunny) advice for greening up some Easter traditions.

A typical Easter basket is usually filled with a ton of candy and little trinkets that children forget about after a few days. What would a "greener" Easter basket look like?

Basket – If possible, reuse baskets you already own. Doing so creates a tradition. If you don’t have a basket to reuse, find used baskets at thrift stores or garage sales, or ask your friends or family if they have baskets you can borrow. If you’d like to buy new, look for baskets that are fair trade or artisan-made. Of course, if you enjoy the do-it-yourself route, baskets can be made easily by wrapping fabric scraps – directions on how to make one can be found here. Remember “baskets” can also be pails, handbags, hats or more!

Grass – Just say ‘no’ to plastic grass unless it’s the same stuff you’ve been reusing year after year. Instead, choose a more sustainable option such as growing real (edible) wheat grass (plant in the basket a few weeks before Easter) or using green wool fleece or yarn, silk play-cloths, shredded tree-free or recycled paper, or even strips of nori (seaweed). Rafia also looks great.

Treats & treasures – Treats (edible goodies) are healthy/ healthier, organic, fair trade and/or given in small amounts. Treasures are ethically made of Earth-friendly materials and can be enjoyed long after Easter is over. Both are packaged in as eco-wise a way as possible.

For all of the above – save everything for use next year, or find ways to use and re-use (i.e. baskets for storing toys, wool fleece “grass” for a craft project, etc.

What are your top choices for candy treats for Easter?

Organic, fair trade, shade grown chocolate such as from Sjaaks.com
Organic jelly beans and worms from Surf Sweets
For non-candy treats, we love Annie’s organic cheddar bunnies, Glee Gum and Just Carrots crunchy bites.

If you were going to green one thing about the typical Easter dinner, what would it be?

Americans typically throw 27% of the food they buy. Instead of spending money on food that your family is not going to eat, buy 25% less. You can pocket the money you save, or use it towards organic ingredients in your meal. If you do have leftovers, eat them later. Table scraps? Compost ‘em in your garden. You’ll make the Easter bunny and Mama Earth proud.

OR (I know you said one, but we can’t decide – use which one you like best!)

Choose local foods. Be it ham, turkey or lamb, eggs, carrots, green beans or potatoes, look for foods grown by farmers living near you. Check out 100milediet.org.

For more of Lynn and Corey’s ideas for greening your Easter celebration and traditions, check out the Eco-Easter Series on Celebrate Green’s blog.

image: brighterworlds

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