15 Eco New Years Resolutions for 2025

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Many of us want to improve ourselves as the new year begins, so here are 15 ways that you can inprove your carbon footprint and make the new year greener, more sustainable and more environmentally friendly.

Get Composting
Now is the time to start composting. Gardeners may put you off by stressing about layering and getting the mix wrong. Relax! It really is not that hard to compost.

Get chucking those garden clippings, vegetables peelings and old tea bags into a composter and magically in a years time you will have usable compost.

Most local councils in the UK offer a basic composter for next to nothing; yes it will be a big, black Dalek-like contraption, but if you want to splash out you can get more aesthetically pleasing ones – or hide it behind a trellis….
Get Tough On Food Waste
Take care to only buy and cook as much food as you will eat, and learn how to use up leftovers to reduce food waste. Visit lovefoodhatewaste.com to find out more about using up leftovers.

A few lefterovers are inevitable, so if you need every bit of compost that you can get your hands on for your garden, compost every scrap of uneaten food using a Bokashi Bin.

Even fish, meat and dairy which cannot go on your compost heap can be turned into useful compost for your garden.

If you don't have a garden there is a good chance that your council offers a food waste collection where you can put all your vegetable waste, teabags etc.
Resolve To Buy Local
What can you buy locally? Save your local shops and businesses and reduce your food’s carbon footprint by buying locally produced food.
Visit bigbarn.co.uk to find local suppliers of food, plants and details of farmers markets in your area.
Reduce Your Air Miles
You’re probably thinking about a holiday about now.

Commit to reducing the amount you fly this year. One, two week holiday is better than two week long holidays which require twice as many flights. Or choose to stay in the UK or visit our nearer European neighbours by boat or train.
Get Hardcore On Paper Recycling
Be a hardcore paper recycler. Every time you receive a piece of junk mail, a leaflet or a note from school which is not printed on both sides, save it as scrap paper for shopping lists etc.

You will, I promise, be shocked by the quantity which piles up quite quickly, especially if you have a couple of kids who bring notes home from school.
Recycle Your Old Mobile(s)
If you got a new mobile phone for Christmas, donate your old handset to charity or sell it on for someone else to use. Recycle Your Mobile Phone
Donate Your Unused Clothing
If you are having a New Year wardrobe clearout, remember to drop it off at your local charity shop.

But why stop there?

If you have clothes that really are in too poorer condition to give to charity, reuse them as cleaning cloths. Not only are you wringing the last bit of use out of them, you can also save on disposable kitchen towels.
Switch Off The TV
Decide if you really enjoy the programmes that you watch on television. No? Switch off and do something else.

Save some electricity. Could you clear out a cupboard and find something to sell, to reuse or give to charity?
Green Power
Consider changing to a green energy supplier. Ecotricity have been building wind turbines and selling electricity across the country since 1996.
Buy Fair Trade Food.
Promise yourself that you will buy more fair-trade items every time you go shopping.

Almost every supermarket stocks lots of fair-trade items now, everything from chocolate and bananas to coffee and wine and beer.

Support your local small grocer or health food shop where possible. You can also buy them online at Ethical Superstore.
Grow Your Own.
Grow something to eat this year. Find out how much better home grown food tastes compared with the fruit and vegetables you buy in the supermarket.

Yes, even if you only have a windowsill and grow mustard and cress it still counts!
Say No To The Reusable Bag Mountain
So we all know that single use plastic carrier bags are a bd thing. The legal requirement for shops in the UK to charge has reduced the use of carrier bags by 90%.

But in it's place there hace been a proliferation of cheap reusable bags. They are mainly cheap cotton tote bags that are so flimsy that they do not last or that shrink to a pointlessly small size on their first trip through the washing machine.

A piece of UK government research calculates that a cotton bag needs to be used at least 131 times to take reusable bags below the global potential of HDPE bags. So say no to cheap totes and use the ones that you alread have.
Get Rid Of Junk Mail.
Stop junk mail by contacting the Mailing Preference Service. Sending mail back marked 'Moved Away Please Return To Sender’ may work too, eventually.

You can also stop that junk that the postman puts through your door by writing to Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Out, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX. Most importantly DO NOT RESPOND TO JUNK MAIL. If nobody bought anything from junk mail they would soon stop sending it out.
Install Loft Insulation.
Not that glamorous, but you can cut up to 20 per cent off your energy bills.
Put Your Mobile On A Diet.
Most of us are guilty of putting our phone on to charge and forgetting about it, leaving them burning electricity long after they are fully recharged.

Don’t put them on just as you go to bed, as your phone only needs about 3 hours charging. (Note: It may need a longer charge the first time you use it). Also you may actually reduce the life of the battery by overcharging it.

15 Eco New Years Resolutions for 2025

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