January always marks that time of year when New Year’s resolutions are made (and unfortunately also broken). Traditionally, resolutions tend to focus on a personal level around healthy eating, or exercise routines, or improving mental processes, but more recently people have also been making resolutions and commitments to helping the environment and the planet.
Eco commitments and resolutions include more recycling, creating less waste, only buying what you need and growing produce at home. All of these (and more) are good but do require willpower and dedication; after all, looking after the planet is a 24/7, 365 days a year deal and as we always say – there is no Planet B!
Recycling
If recycling is top on your list of “must do more of” this year, then here are our suggestions to make sure you hold firm!
- Reasons – Think about why you’ve made the decision to either start or increase your recycling. We all know its good for the planet, but why? How does material sitting in landfill affect the earth, and all of the natural processes that occur every day?
- Organisation – Be organised. If you haven’t already got a recycling bin, make sure you get one – either for the house, or outside. It may be you have more than one, so you can make sure anything recyclable gets sorted into the right bin no matter where in the house you are.
- Knowledge – Do you know what can and what can’t be recycled? It isn’t always as simple as you think; we’ve touched on this previously in our What Can I Recycle? post, but there are certain items (especially plastics) that can’t be typically recycled in domestic recycling plants. This includes clingfilm, black plastics and balloons.
Buying Less & Creating Less Waste
If you have committed to creating less waste, then there are a number of ways to go about this. Examples include:
- Buy wisely – Think about what you’re buying. Do you really need it, do you have something similar already at home? If so, do you need to replace it or could you reuse or repair the one you already have?
- Eco-credentials – Related to buying wisely, also try to find out the eco credentials to what you’re buying. Can it be recycled at the end of its life, or reused? Will it just end up in landfill, adding to the planet’s already heavy “trash” burden.
- Reuse & reuse again – As above, think about reusing rather than replacing. There are so many things we could all reuse instead of replacing, including bottles, cups, straws, packaging, jars, containers and bags. By reusing items, you are reducing the environmental footprint of manufacturing new ones, and also preventing certain items from being sent to landfill.
- Ditch the Disposables – You can also look to ditch your disposable products, replacing instead with long life, reusable alternatives. Examples of this would include using reusable carton covers instead of clingfilm, metal straws instead of plastic (and even paper, as paper straws also notoriously don’t end up being recycled), and taking your own coffee cup out instead of using take away cups from outlets.
- Reduce food waste – food waste may be used for composting or biodegrade down in landfll easier than synthetic materials, but it still has an impact on the planet in terms of carbon footprint. If you throw it away as opposed to composting at home, food waste still needs to be transported to its final destination, and from there sorted for disposal.
- Grow your own food – if you want to really cut down on both food waste and also your own carbon footprint from buying items in, try growing your own vegetables at home. This can be easier said than done, but even growing your own lettuce in a pot or watercress on the windowsill has a small but mighty impact. This can also be something fun to do at home as a family.
It may be that you have other eco commitments than the ones above, or you have other ways to ensure you stay committed – why not let us know about your eco resolutions for 2022!
