10 Environmentally Friendly News Year’s Resolutions
It’s nearly the start of a new year. What is more important than planning goals to help you successfully maneuver the next year coming and provide a more sustainable future overall?
Let’s explore some New Year’s resolutions that actually make sense and are highly achievable goals. Here is a list of 10 resolutions that can help you contribute to a cleaner and greener environment while also helping you organize your home and garden. As the ball drops, let’s also countdown the ways you can have a brighter future with these New Year’s resolutions:
10. Carpool! We all have friends and family who travel each and every day. Why not coordinate a plan to lessen pollution whenever we can?
9. In the New Year, we always want to be more profitable. One great way is to adopt a new side hustle by selling things from your home. Go ahead and open up an online store! The more of these resolutions you read, the more you will see how profitable thinking green can be.
8. Learn a new hobby. There are many ways to help the environment. Making sure that we do not include any more waste than we have to is a great start. A few ideas could be collecting old clothes and rags from around the house, cutting them up, and making quilts or handbags for yourself, your family, or to sell.
7. Get your yard environmentally friendly.
- Use plants that will take less maintenance to thrive. If you don’t get a lot of rain in your area make sure that you use plants that don’t need a lot of water. This will reduce wasting water and wasting your money paying for the water.
- Set up barrels to collect rainwater to water your plants.
- Don’t throw away your lawn clippings and leaves! Use them as mulch for your garden! This will reduce a lot of yard waste that will end up in our landfills. Organic mulch such as this is extremely beneficial to your plants.
6. Reusable Batteries: We all use batteries. From remote controls to the toys we have for our children, etc., we use batteries every day. We can reduce waste if we stopped buying regular batteries that live a certain amount of time and then die. Often, batteries are throw away rather than being properly recycled. It is considered E-Waste in many states. By making a switch to rechargeables, we can eliminate this type of waste. When the rechargeables are the end of their life, make sure to properly dispose of them!
5. Recycle- take a few minutes to find out what is recycleable in your area. I the US, this is often determined by your local municipality or county, so it’s difficult to provide consistent guidance since every community is different. When you know what can easily be recycled, you can start doing so and looking for products that are in packaging that can be recycled in your area. For instance, some communities cannot recycle glass, so it can actually be better to purchase items in aluminum that can be recycled. But, there’s a lot of variation so it’s best to do a little research!
4. Properly store fresh foods. When purchasing fresh foods like fruits and vegetables each week, it’s important to store or use them so they don’t go to waste. Shopping your pantry to figure out what to cook, using old items first, and making and freezing batches of food is a great way to make the most of fresh ingredients. Any left over scraps can be used to make vegetable stock and then can be made into compost for your other plants, such as fruits and vegetables outside.
3. Learn to repair your electric items. Modern electronics have a lot of toxic elements to their components (including mercury that seeps into our soil and pollutes underground water supplies). If you learn how to repair them, by watching tutorials, or YouTube videos, instead of throwing them away- you are not only saving yourself financially but you’re also saving the environment. E-Waste is severely toxic when contributed to our landfills.
2. Get involved & Donate your Time: There are a lot of upcycling events throughout the year. Why not join some of them or teach your own? Get your community or work involved in this great cause! This is an incredible way to support a healthy environment and sustainable future.
1. Upcycle! That’s right, the number one resolution year after year is for people to get rid of their unwanted things. Let’s not avoid the topic. Go ahead, take an inventory of what you have to get rid of, and figure out how to revive it. Then you can either resell it or give it as a gift to someone you know.
In closing, it is important to remember not to make lofty goals that you are likely never to achieve. Always set your standards to a level you are comfortable with. Each one of the resolutions above can actually help you organize your life, feel better about contributing to a cleaner environment, and become proactive in educating others on how to get involved in such an important global cause. Let’s make this a great year!
Want more trashy tips? Follow Kelsey Rumburg for more insights on how to turn trash into treasure with a regerative mindset!