6 Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions
Looking for more meaningful New Year’s resolutions? This list has you covered. Whether you’re a business or an individual, adopting sustainable New Year’s resolutions can make life easier, save you money, and reduce your environmental impact.
If you want to make a real difference this year, here are six easy actions you can try.
Say “No” to Single-Use
A bottle of water here, a take-away coffee there, fast food served with disposable cutlery; it’s easy to fall into single-use traps when we’re caught up in our daily routines. Considering the massive environmental impact of these single-use items, make a resolution to minimize your waste by equipping yourself with reusable items for your everyday needs.
Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to find reusable substitutes for most single-use items. From food storage containers and reusable cloths, to metal straws, canvas produce bags, dryer sheets and more, make note of which items you use and dispose of on a regular basis, and invest in durable, reusable alternatives.
For businesses, even small changes like investing in reusable dishware for your staff room, switching to tap water, and eliminating plastic stir-sticks can drastically reduce waste, and cut recurring costs too.
Start a Compost
Wherever there’s food waste, there’s an opportunity to compost.
Starting a compost is a great way to kickstart your sustainable New Year’s resolutions because it’s a hands-on experiment of repurposing waste into useful material. Best of all, starting is easy!
To begin, separate your food scraps and put them into a small container (or larger tub depending on waste volume). Once full, empty the container into a larger outdoor composter. Along with the food scraps, you’ll need to add “brown” material to your compost pile. Check out this blog for all the tips and info you need to get started. You can purchase a composter at hardware stores, garden centres, or through your local municipality. Be sure to find out if your city offers rebates on them.`
The UN’s Food Waste Index Report 2021 estimates that around 931 million tonnes of food waste was generated in 2019 – 61% from households, 26% from food service, and 13% from retail. By composting you help keep food out of the landfill, reduce emissions, and create a valuable soil byproduct. Triple win!
Once you realize how simple composting is, you’ll understand why more and more people are doing it every year.
Learn what’s recyclable
Every year, Canadians throw away 3 million tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% of which is recycled.This means the vast majority of plastics end up in landfills, and about 29,000 tonnes finds its way into the environment. Once in nature, plastics take thousands of years to break down, and gradually dissolve into micro-plastics. This litter impacts oceans and wildlife, contaminates food chains, and can even be found in newborn babies.
Instead of “wish-cycling” (putting items into a blue bin and hoping they’re recyclable), make a resolution to learn how to properly sort and dispose of various paper and plastic materials.
Knowing what is and isn’t recyclable, and separating materials accordingly, improves your local recycling facilities and lessens the loads sent to landfills. To ensure your efforts are worth your while, clean containers before disposing of them, and remove any non-recyclable wraps or labels. Often times, contaminated containers don’t make it through the recycling process.
Understanding recyclables also makes it easy to choose better packaging options when shopping, and will help you spot greenwashing too. Let the games begin!
Consume less animals products
There’s no denying that eating meat is harmful to the environment and causes unnecessary harm to other sentient creatures. The good news is with so many plant-based meat alternatives on the market, and creative vegetable dishes to try, switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet has never been as easy, or as delicious.
Next time you’re at the grocery store pick up some vegan “chicken tenders” or plant-based sausages to substitute your usual meat items. Familiarizing yourself with vegetables that contain similar properties to meat will also leave you with the same satisfaction.
For instance, mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, spinach, and eggplant are all rich in umami, a savoury, rich taste, similar to meat. So, if you’re in the mood to devour a steak, try grilling up a big portobello mushroom instead. Or, when craving chicken or veal parmesan, satisfy your desires with breaded eggplant and marinara sauce. There are plenty of ways to use “meaty” vegetables that will leave you feeling full.
Not ready to go all in? Start with Meat-Free Mondays, a global campaign encouraging people to reduce meat consumption. The animals and our planet will thank you, and your tastebuds will love it too!
Tighten your supply chain
You may have heard of the supply chain crunch that’s driving up prices and creating shortages on common goods. Ease these woes by opting for items and services offered closer to home.
Deck out your home or workplace with locally-made art, furniture, dishware, and appliances. Source food and coffee from local farmers and roasters. Opt for nearby professional services (printing, web design, taxes, etc.). Once you look for goods and services within your local area, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to keep money in your community, and support your neighbours.
Tightening your supply chain is also a great way to lower your carbon footprint, and helps build resilient communities that can weather the effects of climate change. Be sure to tell friends and family about your sustainable New Year’s resolutions, and inspire them to support their local communities.
Become aware of your impact
If you’re striving to be more sustainable, identify the areas of your lifestyle or routine you can improve. Maybe your energy bill is sky-high, or perhaps you’re lugging multiple garbage bins to the curb each week. By assessing these areas (and others), it becomes clear how to do things differently.
Think of it like trying to lose or gain weight – you’re more likely to reach your goal if you’re aware of where you’re starting. So, if your sustainability goal is to reduce waste, begin by noting how much waste you’re producing and why. Do you throw away a lot of single-use plastics and packaging, or is food waste weighing you down? Once you spot the problems, you can eliminate these items from your trash by choosing better options and disposal methods (recycling, composting, upcycling).
No matter what sustainable mission you’re on, support yourself by measuring what you’re doing before you get started. This is a great way to measure your improvements, celebrate your wins, and keep on track.
If you’re a business, this is a service we offer. Take the hard work out of reducing your impact and let us create a sustainability plan that’s tailored to you. Contact us to book your free consultation.