With all that we know about plastic- the negative effects on our heath and our planet, you’d think it would be easier to find eco-friendly Easter basket ideas. After many years of struggling to provide my own Earth friendly Easter baskets, I’ve finally come up with a few greener options that will take your traditional basket to a new level.
Simple Eco-friendly Easter basket ideas
I don’t have scientific proof, but my gut tells me that the Easter bunny is an environmentalist. I’m certain that he (or she) wants to make sure that whole family can celebrate Easter traditions without causing a negative environmental impact. I also think he’s a fan of putting natural dyes in our sweet treats!
Disclaimer- yes, a lot of these links are Amazon affiliate links which aren’t the most eco-friendly. I do suggest you try to shop local first! Supporting your local businesses is the most eco-friendly thing to do!
Use this guide to help you find the best sustainable Easter tips (click below to jump to the corresponding section):
- Sustainable Easter baskets
- Eco-friendly Easter eggs
- Easter basket fillers to support the circular economy
- Eco-friendly Easter candy
- Better than plastic Easter grass
The first thing you need for an eco-friendly Easter basket is a sustainable reusable Easter basket
Repeat after me: I do not need to buy a brand new Easter basket.
A great option for a sustainable Easter basket is to visit your local thrift store or a buy nothing site. Goodwill and other thrift stores literally have high quality baskets for $1 all year long. These really do make the best children’s Easter baskets. This is a great hack for making gift baskets too!
If the fancy monogrammed traditional Easter basket is more your style, go for it. Use it year after year, and consider getting just one initial instead of a name. This way you can resell it more easily.
We love Easter buckets! We’ve used the same ones for years because they hold up really well!
Skip buying new plastic Easter eggs and reuse what you have
Don’t buy new plastic Easter eggs!
If you still have some plastic Easter eggs from previous Easter morning festivities, keep them and reuse them. If your church or community hosts an Easter egg hunt, encourage the coordinators to ask for the plastic eggs back after Easter. Or encourage your friends and neighbors to pack them up and reuse them. Since plastic Easter eggs are so cheap, it is really tempting for people to just throw them out and buy new ones each year. I get it! It is tempting even for me.
Try these alternatives to plastic Easter eggs
There are a few eco-friendly Easter egg options out there. Here are some of my favorites:
- Paper mache eggs
- Hollow wooden eggs
- Hard boiled eggs with natural egg dye- real eggs for the win
- Painted wooden eggs
My favorite is the paper mache eggs from Oriental Trading and Amazon. Bonus points that these eggs are much more affordable than hollow wooden eggs (as much as $3 an egg!). As much as I love the wooden egg ideas as an alternative to the traditional colorful plastic eggs, I just can’t get behind the price tag!
Of course you can skip the Easter egg fillers all together and just hide fake eggs or boiled eggs. I truly think that hiding the same pretty fake eggs over and over again each year with a prize is a better way to go about egg hunts. And it is still so much fun for the kids!
The best eco-friendly Easter basket fillers that support the circular economy
Of course, every kid’s favorite part about Easter is the stuff, right? Don’t fret, you most certainly can come up with some sustainable living Easter gift ideas. I’m a big fan of skipping the single-use toys and opting instead for high quality items that are built to last. I’m also a fan of non-candy Easter baskets. Here are some of my favorite Easter basket gifts:
- thrifted plush toy bunny (we use the same bunny year after year)
- green toys made from recycled materials or upcycled toys from consignment stores
- organic cotton clothing- I really love the organic cotton clothing from Pact.
- Beeswax crayons
- gift cards
Another great alternative is to put things the kids need into the Easter basket. Since it is spring season, I’ve noticed a big trend towards gifting swim suits and Earth friendly toys for the beach or pool. We tend to do new beach toys in our Easter baskets each year.
RELATED POST: Why Organic Cotton is Worth the Price
Eco-friendly Easter Candy
I think the best way to be sustainable when it comes to food, even candy, is to support your local food systems. Find a great local chocolatier and support them instead of buying cheap candy from Walmart or Target. Of course Amazon and Trader Joe’s do offer some amazing dye free and eco-friendly organic candy options.
Here are my favorites:
- locally made chocolate- bonus points for locally made chocolate eggs or chocolate bunnies!
- Organic Fruit Leathers- BEAR All Natural Real Fruit Snack Minis with no added sugar
- Unreal Chocolate Brand- fair trade chocolate (pricey but worth it)
- Alter-Eco Chocolates- organic, non-GMO, and come wrapped in COMPOSTABLE packaging!
- Yum Earth Candy- dye free, non-GMO, organic
- Naturally dyed jelly beans- Trade Joe’s has the best prices on these
Eco-friendly alternatives to plastic Easter grass
You do not need to go the traditional Easter grass route. You most definitely want to skip the plastic easter grass if you are aiming for a better way to celebrate Easter. The most sustainable Easter basket grass is no grass at all! You can easily skip this part of the basket. After all, what parent actually likes cleaning up green strips of fake plastic grass? However, if grass is something you must have in your basket, try these alternatives:
- Natural raffia
- Shredded newspaper or junk mail
- Reusable organic wool Easter grass
- Edible Easter grass
- Biodegradable eco grass (however, I’d probably use this as a last resort as most biodegradable options don’t truly break down well)
It is possible to have a sustainable Easter basket
It really isn’t that hard to create an Earth friendly Easter basket. Just to sum it all up:
- Keep it simple
- Buy used or preloved baskets and Easter bunnies
- Use the same basket and Easter bunnies year after year
- Support local chocolatiers if you have them
- Give Easter gifts that will last instead of cheap toys destined for the landfill
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