Selfsufficientish.com

Just read this off the BBC website:-

Making sure Easter doesn't cost the oeuf
Richard Cable 9 Apr 09, 01:03 PM
Over Easter, Britons generally consume about 80 million chocolate eggs, averaging one and a third for each person in the country. Up to 25% of the weight of any boxed Easter egg is pure packaging. Last year we generated somewhere in the region of 3,000 tonnes of waste from Easter eggs alone, and it is now sitting in landfill sites, gentling oozing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This year, the offending industry is set to scythe 700 tonnes of waste from its 2009 total through a series of 'green' measures, including reducing cardboard weight, removing plastic 'clam shells' and making packaging more recyclable.
According to WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) an organisation that 'helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more', its Seasonal Confectionery Industry Working Group (yes, really) has brokered a voluntary agreement with manufacturers to make 'significant reductions' for 2009.
If you want to know who has the greenest eggs on the market, most major names are signed up to the Wrap scheme and many are proudly trumpeting their climate-friendly credentials. Alternatively, you can turn your back on packaged eggs entirely (some of which contain as little as 110g of chocolate, the equivalent of two small bars) and make your own stuff instead.


Now we have made eggs for the boys this year, but that was brought about by the dairy free aspect that we have for one of them, we didn't want to make one plain and buy a fancy one we are great believers in good for one good for all. But having said this I know that the kids will get eggs from family members, yes we will recycle everything that we can, but how far have you gone, have you asked family not to get eggs for the kids, or just asked for specific brands that have signed up to the wrap scheme?

Hmm - can I go off at a tangent? Christmas has become giftmas and commercial and Easter is going the same way with outdoor events, days out and chocolate.

Surely we need to look at the reason for the tradition before we all blindly follow it down the shopping path.

Yes my name is Bah Humbug But can you imagine in the not so far distant future a day dedicated to chocolate eggs just like the one dedicated to Saint Nicholas?

Right I'll go and get my coat.

We tried last year to get people to only get E a small gift - at the time she had an adverse reaction to chocolate. We also tried to tell people not to bother about eggs for us, or to get 'green' eggs.
We ended up with 2 greens and blacks eggs, 2 devine eggs, and 2 nestle eggs (for OH and I) and a mountain of chocolate chicks, chocolate eggs, stupid finger puppet things, easter bags, easter hats, god only knows what else - M+S package all their kids easter stuff with one piece of tat or another and the in-laws just can't resist buying bits and pieces I tell them not to

This year we already got a Nestle egg from playgroup (how long have we been boycotting them and I still seem to end up eating KitKats )


I agree we should not let all this commercial stuff ruin the celebration, but I think the religion aspect of Easter is always over the top too... Fine for those who believe but it is a pagan festival of life (chicks, bunnies, flowers and eggs)

People just can't stop buying tat though, so everything is over commercial.

well in my mind, Easter long precedes any Christian festival, and is about fertility and spring. So the obvious thing is to get into the garden and plant things.. which we have been doing like mad
We shall have boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast on sunday, and a nice roast leg of lamb. meantime we are eating hot cross buns, and simnel cake (lots of simnel cake whilst I perfect my recipe - which seems to be working out well with the extended family), and taking the time to catch up with family.

Luckily we have no tradition of everyone giving everyone easter eggs, though my parents bought one for my son, and we shall give him something.

My mother bought me a Cadbury's egg which was just wrapped in foil (which I can recycle), no plastic clam shell and no box There is a small plastic bag inside with the two mini eggs in it but overall it's a big improvement over the highly packaged typical easter egg.

Zoe

My youngest can't have milk chocolate as he's allergic to soya (makes him aggressive - very common reaction apparently) and nearly all milk chocolate contains soya lecithin as an emulsifier. So since dark chocolate eggs are hellish expensive, my mum bought my to a skateboard each instead!