Don’t toss that Easter trash! Keep it out of the waste stream by upcycling it into something useful or fun.
Even if you try your best to consume lightly, holidays always result in more trash. Even with my heirloom, reusable plastic egg alternatives and my hand-me-down Easter baskets and my home-sewn stuffies, this Easter I’m still going to have a trash bag full of candy wrappers, egg cartons, egg dye packaging, and empty food packaging to dispose of. It’s never quite the perfectly eco-friendly holiday of my dreams!
Fortunately, re-using and upcycling some of that trash cuts WAY down on how much of your Easter festivities end up in the waste stream. Read on for some of my favorite ways to upcycle the most common types of Easter trash.
Egg Cartons
egg carton seed starters. Did you buy more cartons of eggs than usual? Upcycle those empty cartons into easy seed starter pots!
math manipulative. You can turn both Styrofoam and cardboard egg cartons into some very clever math manipulatives. Even older students can model sophisticated math concepts!
fire starters. Set yourself up for a year of easy campfires with these fire starters. You need a cardboard egg carton, dryer lint, and a little wax.
egg carton geodes via Family and Craft Online
egg carton geodes. You’ve probably already got all the supplies that you need to help your kids make this fun chemistry craft.
egg carton flowers via Dish Functional Design
egg carton flowers. Spring has sprung, so celebrate with some flowers!
Easter Eggs
color blocked candle holder image via A Kailo Chic Life
color blocked candle holder. This is such a cool way to upcycle plastic Easter trash! The tutorial calls for store-bought air dry clay, but you can substitute homemade salt dough.
plastic egg snake. It’s too easy to collect WAY too many plastic Easter eggs. Here’s how to upcycle them into a fun toy.
egg dye watercolors. Did you know that you can paint with leftover Easter egg dye? It’s a great post egg hunt, pre-Easter dinner quiet activity!
mini bullet planters. They look high-end, but they’re just Easter eggs!
acorn decoration image via Domestically Blissful
acorn decorations. Get a head start on your fall decor by painting and wrapping plastic Easter eggs to look just like acorns. Add a few pinecones and you’ll be perfectly festive for autumn!
Packaging
candy box shadow boxes via Right Now Crafts
candy box shadow boxes. My teenagers LOVE the special-edition holiday candies that usually come in movie theater-style candy boxes. Cardboard is pretty easily recyclable, but there’s no harm in squeaking even more usage out of it before it hits the recycling bin!
candy wrapper hair bows. This is the cutest way to upcycle candy wrappers that you’d otherwise just have to trash.
candy wrapper zippered pouch via Polkadot Chair
candy wrapper zippered pouch. If you bought some larger bags of bulk candy to fill Easter eggs, here’s how to upcycle them into zippered pouches that are perfect to hold school supplies… or to tuck into Christmas stockings or next year’s Easter basket, if you like to plan as far ahead as I do…
plastic bag basket. Did you accidentally shop WAY too hard and have the plastic bags to prove it? It’s okay! Here’s a tutorial for turning all those wasteful plastic bags into a nifty (and useful!) basket.
Pringles can solar cooker. Did you know that Pringles makes Easter-themed chips? If you’ve got teenagers, you probably did, lol. It turns out that Pringles ALSO makes the instruments necessary for that first cookout of Spring!
Easter Presents and Decorations
Easter basket makeovers via Artsy Chicks Rule
Easter basket makeovers. Feeling like you want to start fresh with a new Easter basket next year! That’s okay! Use some of these ideas to makeover that old Easter basket into something that gives it its own fresh start.
toy animal magnets via Sugar and Cloth
toy animal magnets. Did you tuck a couple of little animal toys into your kid’s Easter basket, only to come to your senses and realize that your kid actually has WAY too many of those little toys? It’s an easy fix, because some of those toys want to be magnets!
Melissa and Doug toy packaging upcycling. I know you bought your little kid something from Melissa and Doug. I mean, you’re reading an eco-crafting blog–I KNOW you did! Here are some ways to upcycle that beautiful wooden packaging!
repainted ceramics image via Do Dodson Designs
repainted ceramics. Sometimes those sweet little keepsakes that you picked out don’t hit quite like you thought they would. If your ceramic Easter bunny doesn’t make you happy, just repaint it into something that does!
bunny ear hoodie. Just in case that stuffed bunny isn’t as beloved as you’d hoped it would be… upcycle its most important anatomical feature into your new favorite accessory!
Do you have a super cute way to upcycle YOUR Easter excess? Tell us about it in the Comments!