Happy Easter! 🐰

This morning, I had a very fun Easter egg hunt, but after all the excitement had subsided, I looked at the foil wrapped around the eggs, and the packaging they came in etc., and I wondered how much of a difference it made to the environment. But we were very happy, because not only did we get big chocolate eggs too, their packaging was just cardboard (well, read on to see how we could check the looks aren't deceiving us into thinking their isn't plastic). 

In 2018, the UK was one of the biggest consumers of chocolate each year. And with a huge piece of it used just for the joy of Easter, it is a bit worrying about the amount of waste that follows. A few years ago, WRAP (who I wrote a paragraph about in this blog) calculated that over 3000 tonnes of packaging comes with the 80-something million eggs we buy each year. 

To check whether your Easter egg has hidden plastic - because as much as it may look clear of it, there could be quite a lot - there are a few tests. If your cardboard looks shiny, there's a chance it has a plastic coating on it, and to check you can get a piece and soak it in water for a few hours. If something, well probably plastic, starts peeling off then you know that it shouldn't be recycled and maybe not buy it next year. With the foil that wraps the whole of your eggs, it could actually be a more plastic film. To be honest, I always thought it was foil, but there's a test to check. If you scrunch up the wrapping and it stays in a ball, it is most probably foil. However, if it sort of bounds back and doesn't stay in a ball, then it's probably plastic (made out of the same stuff that some crisp packets are made of) and can't be recycled.

Speaking of recycling, make sure you save and then roll up all the foil (if you have it) into a ball, so the small pieces don't get lost or anything. However, you also need to check with your neighbourhood to see if you are allowed to recycle foil, because I'm not sure I'm actually allowed to recycle the foil - so doing that could do a bit more damage than good. 

Many big companies who sell Easter eggs don't use plastic, and some even put that on their packaging, however - a few years ago - Friends of the Earth showed that quite a few companies did use plastic packaging (including: Maltersers from Mars and Thornton's classic collection). They asked how many of their Easter products had plastic packaging, and not all responded. Click here to read about what companies including Nestle, Mars, Lindt and Thornton's had to say. 

Also, click here to take part in a petition to urge the government to reduce production of plastic waste. I'm going to add my name!

Thank you so much for reading this week's blog! I hope you have a lovely Easter! 

Violet

    xxx