The Ultimate Zero Waste Easter: Eco-Friendly & Fun for Kids

This post was updated as of March 12, 2025
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One of the main critiques of the zero waste (low waste) movement is that it’s not affordable or relatable to most people, especially families. I completely agree with this sentiment! This original post was written in 2019, but in 2025 my focus on environmentalism has shifted to systemic changes instead of individualism. Here are 13 Systemic Ways We Can Change the World.

Despite this shift in my belief, I still like the challenge of reducing my family’s waste stream! If you’re here then you want to know how to lower your waste stream too! Side note: Composting is my best kept secret and how we keep our weekly waste to a minimum. Lowering your waste stream takes research, time, and money. It takes even more research and preparation for a FAMILY. The lovely Bea Johnson makes zero waste with kids look easy, but it’s not (at least not for me). Planning a LOWER waste Easter for my kids has been an education. I have had several zero waste fails. A few years back I purchased plant-based plastic Easter eggs. I soon learned that plant-based plastics are still plastics and can be worse than traditional plastic.

My younger sister would tell me “you won’t understand until you have own kids.” I absolutely hated when she said that. She had children at a young age. My husband and I had our kids in our mid 30s, enjoying our 20’s and early 30’s as dual income no kids (DINKs). After having kids I can firmly attest that I completely underestimated how much of a lifestyle change we would go through after our first child! It’s nothing less than a shock to your system. I recently read a study that parents eventually get a full night’s sleep (when their kids turn 6 years old). When I originally wrote this post I was in the thick of it with two young children and very little sleep. We typically came home after a long day of work, picked up our kids, fed them, bathed them, then fell into bed ourselves–only to be woken up in the middle of the night and start the process all over again.

Parenthood isn’t that hard. Right?

Video from The Dad Online on Facebook

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So if we want to introduce people to the lowering their waste stream, we have to make the zero waste lifestyle more relatable and affordable to people with low incomes or large families, as these individuals use a large percentage of their income on consumables. There are some scenarios in which a low-waste solution is truly the best option. So how do we balance a family as a zero waster? Listed below are some of my favorite Easter holiday activities with a zero waste twist. I’m looking forward to adding to this post in the future.

Wooden Fillable Easter Eggs

I found these wonderful Easter eggs on BestPysanky.com for $3.46 for 6 wooden eggs. Best Pysanky is a shop based in Illinois. They sell beautiful nesting dolls, snow globes, ornaments, and other treasures. I’ve seen various iterations of wood easter eggs, but many do not open (ergo they are not fillable). Best Pysanky is also selling eggs on Amazon and Walmart, but for some reason the prices on Amazon and Walmart are more than on their website. I purchased 24 eggs and used markers to color them. We purchased these in 2019 and are still using them in 2025!

Candy & Treats

One of my favorite online shops is Marilla’s. They’re busy season is Halloween, but give them a look and see if you can find some Easter candy. They also have a lot of great low waste household options. There’s also a fun online Candy Store! Check them out!

Some of the zero waste candy suggestions can quickly get expensive. If you’re on a tight budget one of my favorites is Robin Eggs candy in cardboard packaging. Another option is to buy a large bag of candy to become your OWN BULK STORE (figuratively speaking) by limiting your packaging. Another option is purchasing candy in bulk. Please note that when you buy bulk you’re leaving your packaging at the store (and hopefully using less packaging overall), but you are not eliminating plastic packaging. U.S. Stores like Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Sprouts, Wegmans, Tops Market, and Winco have bulk bins. (See here for Canada, UK, Australia, Worldwide). Most importantly as I noted above, packaging waste is just a small part of this process. We need to focus on systemic changes.

Another option is candy in paper boxes, foil wrappers, or in bulk packaging (e.g. Costco). Not to be confused with bulk shopping. Sometimes purchasing an item in bulk plastic packaging is more eco-friendly than shipping it from halfway around the world. In general my rule of thumb is to avoid candy with individual packaging (other than foil). Non-foil candy wrappers are not recyclable (unless you recycle them with a specialty recycler like TerraCycle).

I’ve listed below a sampling of candy in bulk packaging or wrapped in foil. To recycle your foil packaging, ball up the individual foil wrappers into a larger piece of foil. Aluminum is a valuable material and it can be recycled over and over again. Some aluminum in the system is from the 1800s. This is how I recycle my beer bottle caps. I ball them up in an old piece of aluminum foil. The magnetic recycler sorters should be able to pick your foil balls up.

*Good and Plenty
*Skittles
*Peanut M&Ms
*Hershey Kisses individually wrapped in foil
*Mini-chocolate Easter eggs individually wrapped in foil
*Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Coins in a mesh bag, individually wrapped in foil
*Whoppers Mini Robin Eggs in a 4 oz. carton
*Jelly beans (2 lbs)
*Cheddar Goldfish in a carton from Walmart or in large bags from Boxed.

Easter Baskets

A simple wooden basket from Etsy or any major retailer would suffice, but I wanted something with a dual purpose. My kids are always putting something in a tote bag. So I purchased two personalized canvas tote bags from Etsy. In lieu of Easter grass you can use cloth towels or if you really love the feel of Easter grass, use shredded paper. The shredded paper does come in a plastic bag (which can be recycled at the grocery store), but it’s better than plastic grass. If you shred confidential paper like bills or medical records, you can use your own shredded paper!

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Clothing

I love Pink Elephant Brands for dresses and pajamas! But you do not have to purchase from an online clothing boutique for Easter Sunday clothing. In lieu of searching for a store, I recommend shopping second hand at a thrift store or look for Organic, Fair Trade, or GOTS Certified Cotton labels. I purchased several baby sleepers from Milk Maids Goods and City Threads for very reasonable prices. I also purchased organic baby clothing from Target, Walmart, Kohls, Carters, and Amazon. Target has an extensive organic baby collection.

Buying organic clothing IS more expensive, but it doesn’t have to be AS expensive if you know where to look. The reason clothing produced in sweatshop conditions is so cheap is because…it’s produced in a sweatshop. Clothing labeled organic also has restrictions on certain chemical inputs. I have seen more than a few articles about how our clothing is full of plastics.

*Garnet Hill Kids
*Pink Elephant Brands
*Tea Collection

Activities

*Chalk
*Bake cookies
*Decorate eggs. I love this blogger’s suggestions for dyeing eggs naturally.
*Play a board game
*Make homemade play dough (with the natural dyes listed above)

Food

Lower your meat consumption— have less meat, a meatless Easter dinner, or purchase meat locally. Animal-based diets are less physically healthy (on average) and worse for the environment. Admittedly local butchers are few and far between. One of my favorite ways to buy local are Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). I will also be incorporating a few of these vegetarian ideas in our Easter dinner.

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*Use those hardboiled eggs for Deviled eggs
*Creamy spring peas
*Roasted asparagus with peas
*Pasta salad
*Cucumber sandwiches (white bread, cucumbers, cream cheese, Italian seasoning)
*Homemade pimento cheese
*Fresh lemonade
*Potato pancakes
*Braided Easter bread
*Eggplant bake
*Quinoa stuffing
*Ginger carrot soup
*Pralined sweet potatoes
*Crispy Breaded Chickpea Cutlets in a Savory Mushroom Gravy

Enjoy the Day

Unlike stuff, time is truly invaluable. Even the richest people in the world cannot buy more time. Enjoying the day with family, friends, food, and fun is truly the best Easter gift you can give your kids. in the age of digital media, there are so many distractions. Easter is a nice day to slow down, enjoy the moment, and rest.

My Favorite Easter Scripture

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” Luke 23:46-47

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