Campaigners call for an eco-Easter as shoppers spend big

Shoppers who spent billions of pounds on DIY, Easter eggs and clothes over the Bank Holiday break are today being urged to recycle to help the environment.

About 8,000 tons of rubbish was generated this Easter, according to the national recycling group Recycle Now. As part of its "Be a Good Egg" campaign the organisation is urging people to send their Easter cards and packaging for reuse.

The call for people to enjoy an eco-Easter comes as the four-day-weekend becomes an ever more important fixture on the shopping calendar.

This Easter the British Retail Consortium predicts shoppers will spend £5bn, while the Centre for Economics and Business Research thinks Britons will splash out up to £10.7bn - £44 for every household.

Easter is second only to Christmas for shopping and has become a seasonal boost for the high street.

DIY chains, suffering the weakest market for a decade, traditionally do good business as people start building and decorating projects.

All the shopping and DIY creates mountains of waste. Bags of black bin liners will be destined for landfill unless people choose to place reusable items in recycling bins and bottle banks.

According to Recycle Now, which is funded by the Government, about 8,000 tons of rubbish will be generated this Easter.

Britons will eat an estimated 80 million chocolate eggs - more than one for every person. Almost all of the eggs will be sheathed in plastic or cardboard packaging. An average 200g chocolate egg comes with 54g of card and 2g of foil.

Campaigners, who had been urging people to make hand-painted eggs, estimate that chocolate eggs will create 4,370 tons of card and 160 tons of foil waste. Cardboard and foil can be recycled.

Retailers say that more people this year are sending Easter cards, another trend that threatens to increase waste.

Cards can be recycled, as can plastic bags and cardboard from clothes.

Campaigners are keen that waste generated by DIY projects finds a new home rather than a rubbish dump. Charity groups in many areas collect old furniture for distribution to poor families, and unwanted wood and metal is accepted at municipal sites. Half-used pots of paint can be taken to many sites.

Local recycling facilities can be found at www.recyclenow.com, which allows a postcode search.

Julie Brown, of Recycle Now, said: "It's really easy to cut down on the amount of waste we generate at this particularly wasteful time of year but that does not mean we have to miss out on the fun.

"If you can't say no to an Easter egg, it has never been easier to recycle. More than eight out of 10 local authorities now provide doorstep collection services for a range of materials - including paper, glass, card and metal cans - so you can easily recycle a lot of packaging."

The recycling drive is being accelerated by the Government in an effort to increase rates well below those of the rest of Europe.

An adverting campaign featuring a cartoon family composting waste food recycling bottles has been run with the slogan: "The possibilities are endless."

There are signs that the message got through after Christmas. A scheme run by Recycle Now and the Woodland Trust in January collected 82 million Christmas cards - a rise of 41 per cent on last year's figures.

Easter consumption

* We have spent an estimated £2.8bn on food and drink this Easter. Restaurants have been packed. More cooking is done at home because families get together - and hardly anyone is at work.

* About £2bn is expected to have been spent on Do-It-Yourself in the four days. Chains such as Homebase and B&Q are desperate for trade after reporting a DIY slowdown in the past year.

* Some 80 million Easter eggs will be scoffed. Woolworths was stocking 144 different varieties and hoped to sell 20 million eggs. The sale of Fairtrade chocolate eggs has soared.

* Thirty-four million Easter cards were sent. A spokeswoman for the Greeting Card Association said: "Easter cards are becoming more popular and are closing the gap on Mother's Day."