Recycling at Easter
View our top tips for reducing waste and recycling correctly over Easter.
Reduce your waste
Try making your own decorations instead of buying brand new ones. You could create an Easter tree from a few branches and decorated egg shells.
Hold a zero-waste egg hunt - use baskets or bags you already have (or shop second hand). Hide decorated stones around the house and garden for the kids to find. Painting the stones is a great way to keep them entertained beforehand too. Create a scavenger hunt with clues and give 1 Easter egg at the end (instead of hiding lots of eggs).
Recycling
Easter egg boxes can be put in your recycling bin at home; remove any ribbon or glitter parts first.
Foil needs to be scrunched together to about the size of a tennis ball and then put in your recycling bin at home.
Any soft plastic can be taken to most large supermarkets. You can also check the Waste Wizard which has thousands of items listed to help you repair, reuse or recycle household items or which bin it goes in.
Food waste
The UK creates almost 8,500 tonnes of food waste at Easter in total. This includes:
- 8 million hot cross buns wasted
- 5 million slices of leftover roast meat
- 19 million leftover potatoes
- 20 million leftover portions of vegetables
You can view a great portion planner from 'Love Food, Hate Waste' where you can select the type of food you're cooking and the number of people you are catering for.
Here are a few recipes to use up any leftovers:
Food that can't be eaten can be recycled. Lamb bones, vegetable peelings and coffee grounds can all be recycled at home. The weekly food recycling service makes it easier than ever. You can also use spare plastic bags to line your caddy too, like bread or salad bags.
Changes to bin collections
In 2026, the Easter bank holidays are on:
- Friday 3 April (Good Friday)
- Monday 16 April (Easter Monday)
There will be no bin collections on these days so we have created a revised schedule.