Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling Your Way to an Eco-Friendly Easter

Holidays have a funny way of multiplying the amount of junk in the house—toys, decorations, gifts, clothes...and eventually, trash.

Yes, all those things that kids fuss over and adore at first eventually end up buried at the bottoms of toy boxes and shelves, just waiting until the next cleaning binge, when they'll end up in the garbage or the recycle bin. Make a plan for an eco-friendly Easter by remembering the three Rs.
Recycling

• Instead of stuffing baskets with the green plastic "grass" that invariably ends up all over the house, try recycling shredded paper instead.
  
• Try wrapping gifts in eco-friendly packaging, or just forego wrapping the gifts entirely.
  
• when the kids have outgrown last year's Easter outfits or no longer play with their once-favorite toys, encourage them to donate the items to a thrift store or homeless shelter. Recycling gifts this way is a great way to give them a new life with another deserving child.

Reducing

• Instead of wind-up toys or other plastic trinkets, focus on gifts that will eventually get recycled or used up. With summer fast approaching, items like bubbles, sidewalk chalk, crayons or markers, and coloring books are great environmentally friendly Easter gifts for kids that won't linger in your toy room forever.
  
• Better yet—don't let Easter for kids become just a mini-Christmas. Focus on the meaning of the holiday, and stick to some candy and perhaps one reasonable gift that will last.

Reusing

• Do your kids really need a new Easter basket every single year? A brand-new stuffed rabbit every year? Probably not. If you don't already, keep the core Easter accessories—baskets, decorations, durable toys—in storage until the holiday arrives, and then give kids a set amount of time to play with them before whisking them back into the closet. (Small children will barely remember them from year to year anyway, making them seem just like new!)
  
• Splurge for quality items that will hold up for several years, and then give them away when your kids are too old for them.

With all the Easter eco-guilt gone, now you can feel free to indulge in a giant chocolate bunny!