This Easter presents uniquely challenging times, to say the least. If, like the Greenredeem team, you’re not one of the brilliant and brave key workers called upon to keep the country going through this crisis, it’s hard not to feel like a helpless bystander.
While we might not be able to do much to change the course of current events (besides following the latest NHS guidance and supporting our families and friends), we’ve realised there’s still plenty we can be doing to improve our planet’s health.
With this in mind, the Greenredeem team will be spending this whole month working on the theme of Earth Day 2020 – “climate action”. Each week during April, we’ll share a list of the green tasks we’re tackling. Will you join us? Everything will be doable without leaving the house, naturally!
Last week we looked at 10 online tasks we can do now to slow climate change. This week, our thoughts turn to Easter and how to make it a special day despite the circumstances.
1. Count down with an Easter ‘advent calendar’
Keep yourselves amused by making one of these egg shell advent calendars, stuffed with shredded magazine confetti and a joke or a fun forfeit. Take it in turns to break an egg each morning of Easter week.
2. Create some recycled Easter decorations
If you don’t have a pot of daffs in the garden to bring indoors, why not make a bouquet from an old egg box?
Looking for more inspiration for your crafting? A few years back, we wrote about our favourite recycled Easter decoration ideas – and we’re still fans to this day.
3. Dye egg shells with onion peels
Combine a bath of boiled onion skins and pretty flower sprigs with some light-coloured egg shells to create these traditional patterned Easter eggs. Remember to blow the contents out of the egg shells first, so you can use them for scrambled eggs or in a cake.
4. Avoid over-packaged Easter gifts
With 148m Easter eggs sold every year in the UK, our Easter chocolate habit generates more than 3,000 tonnes of polluting plastic packaging. Can you join us in opting for plastic-free Easter presents this year?
>> Cox & Co chocolate Easter eggs (£9), in fully biodegradable and compostable packaging
>> Montezuma’s chocolates “Hetty Hen” (£15), a chocolate chicken filled with truffle mini eggs
>> plantable eco-greeting cards (£16), with each handmade card embedded with wildflower seeds
>> indulgent bath melt pack (£12), ideal for a stressed-out parent
>> Beer Hawk’s Easter craft beer selection box (£24), will go down a treat
5. Bake your own Hot Cross Buns
Many would argue for a toasted, buttered Hot Cross Bun as the best Easter treat of all. But how many of us have tried making these delicacies?
Now’s your chance. If you’re in need of some comforting stodge this Easter time, try this Jamie Oliver recipe for cheap and cheerful, honey-glazed Hot Cross Buns.
6. Reuse the cooking water from Easter lunch
Save the water you cook your veggies in for making gravy and soup, soaking tired feet, cooking rice and pasta – or even washing your face! Our blog post from this past Christmas explains how.
7. Organise an online Easter meetup
Missing a big Easter shindig with family and friends? Why not take the celebration online and coordinate a time to catch up with each other via conference call?
8. Make Easter chocolate nests
Crunch up around 80g of whatever cereal needs eating up and mix well with double that weight in melted chocolate. Dollop onto plates or a baking tray, then press the back of a teaspoon into the centre to form the nest shape. Top with mini eggs and chill for a couple of hours in the fridge until set.
9. Eat up your Easter leftovers
Leftover meat has the makings of a delicious pie or curry. Remaining veggies can be chopped into soup or fried into a bubble and squeak. The last slice of cake can be cut into portions and frozen for up to a year.
Leftover chocolate? Who said anything about leftover chocolate?
10. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
Before you buy something this Easter, think about whether you really need it, plan how you might be able to reuse it and, if you decide to get it, make sure it’s biodegradable or can be recycled after you’re finished with it.
Not sure if your Easter egg foil is recyclable? Remember the “munch, scrunch, recycle” test… crush the foil loosely in your hand. If it stays scrunched it’s foil and you can recycle it in your mixed recycling bin. If it bounces back it’s plastic and goes in your general waste bin.
What are your plans for Easter? How will you be making it special despite having to stay at home? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Twitter.
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