10 Sustainable Resolutions for a Greener New Year
The race is on to stop the worst ravages of climate change and everyone has a role to play. Why not make a new year’s resolution to treat the planet more kindly in the coming 12 months?
You don’t need to make grand gestures like moving off the grid or converting your home to solar. Small changes can make a big difference. What should you do? Here are 10 sustainable resolutions for a greener new year.
1. Bring a Bag
Plastic grocery bags are a menace to sea life and don’t readily biodegrade. Instead, take a reusable one with you and force yourself to make the “walk of shame” to retrieve it from your car the first few times you forget it — you won’t for long. You’ll thank yourself each time you arrive home with unbroken eggs.
2. Go Paperless
Are you still writing out paper checks to pay your bills? Why burden yourself with the unnecessary need to buy stamps? Instead, go paperless. Put your accounts on autopay if you can — it’s one less chore to remember each month.
3. Add Recycling Bags to Your Car
Have you ever noticed that gas stations don’t have recycle bins? Those garbage cans collect a lot of cardboard and plastic that could otherwise see new life. Instead of carrying a single trash bag in your vehicle, add a second for recyclable items.
4. Exercise More
Exercise is a common New Year’s resolution, and it comes with a lot more benefits than physical. How can exercise help the environment? Walking or cycling instead of driving is a great way to help your physical health and the planet. If walking instead of driving sounds like a challenge, look into local fitness classes or try swimming as alternatives that are not as physically demanding. You can start with easier activities to build up your strength and work towards bigger goals, like walking to work.
5. Take Your Kids to the Park
You aren’t the only one who will feel more inspired to care for Mother Earth when you enjoy the great outdoors. Research suggests children who spend more time in nature are more likely to grow up to be better stewards of the planet than those with more sedentary, indoor childhoods. Therefore, take your little ones to the playground to let them run, skip and jump.
6. Adjust Your Lighting
Are you still buying incandescent bulbs when one burns out? If so, you’re wasting money and energy. LEDs use far less power and last considerably longer. While they may cost a bit more upfront, they cut costs in the long run.
7. Eat Seasonally
Eating food that’s in season may not seem necessary when grocery stores stock all fruits and vegetables year around. However, stores have to transport produce that’s out of season, which contributes significantly to fuel emissions. Shopping from local markets and knowing what foods are in season during a given month can help cut down on pollution.
8. Drink Tap Water
Americans buy a lot of plastic water bottles each year — there’s no need for them in most locations. Drink what flows from the tap or use a filtered pitcher. Invest in a high quality reusable bottle and commit to leaving plastic bottles behind in the new year.
9. Recycle at Home
This suggestion might sound obvious, but less than a third of Americans regularly heed it. The rest pitch their garbage into the same bin, where it gets carted off to landfills. The conditions there aren’t great, even for biodegradable substances, which produce methane emissions. Other objects — like plastic — can linger for hundreds of years without breaking down. Make it a goal to look up your local recycling guidelines to be sure you’re not contaminating your blue bin with non-recyclable items.
10. Plant a Tree
Although you might want to wait until the snows melt, planting a tree is a great way to cement your commitment to the planet. Make yours a living symbol of your commitment to going green.
Make This Next Year the Greenest Yet
How will you play your part in helping preserve the planet? Why not resolve to go greener this year? Adopt one or all of these sustainable resolutions for a greener new year. You’ll feel good knowing you did your part.
