We have said goodbye to 2022 and ushered in 2023. The time is ripe for New Year resolutions. Some sceptics would say, New Year resolutions are meant to be broken. I will give you top 10 Sustainable New Year resolutions that would protect the environment, enhance your mental and physical wellness, and add a few extra pennies to your bank account.
1. Bin the Toxin
Thou shalt not buy commercial cleaning agents.
- If we do not buy commercial cleaning agents, how do we keep our homes clean? I have two weapons in my arsenal, baking soda and vinegar. Use baking soda and vinegar to clean stove tops, oven, kitchen sink, pots and pans, shower, toilet - the entire spectrum of problem areas.
- Want your home and hearth to smell nice? Add a few drops of essential oils to baking soda and vinegar mix. Shop for essential oils - lavender, tea tree, or peppermint at wholesalebotanics.com - use coupon code SAMITA10 at checkout to get an extra 10 percent off on the entire order. You can use essential oils for making soap, incense, candles, pot pourrie and a host of other things.
2. Farm to Table
Commercial produce is, most likely, grown with chemical fertilizers and treated with pesticides for preservation and storage. When you are eating commercially grown fruits and veggies, you are ingesting chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
You can
- Soak your veggies and fruits in water to wash away the toxins
- Buy direct from growers and farmers
- Grow veggies in your backyard, on your terrace, on the kitchen window sill, in a community garden. Leafy greens like kale, spinach, silver beet, lettuce and herbs like mint, coriander and basil grow easily and are full of nutrients and flavors.
3. Table to Farm
- Fertilize plants with food scraps
- Have a compost bin
- Add dried and powdered eggshells for calcium, dried and powdered onion skins and banana peels for potassium, and other nutrients.
- Plant marigold flowers randomly in your veggie patch. Marigold flowers are natural insect repellents.
4. Embrace Make Do and Mend
- Do not discard a top or a blouse because it is missing a button. If you do not have the exact button, replace the entire sequence with mismatched buttons. Make this a design feature.
- Repair cuts and rips with darning, with ironing on a fusing on the wrong side.
- Cover a hole with applique. The entire genre of applique and patchwork came into being because of the need to repair damaged clothing and use off cuts.
5. If you cannot Re-use, Refuse.
- Refuse anything that is not reusable or not biodegradable - single-use plastic bags, plastic party supplies, balloons, plastic crockery and cutlery, plastic straw styrofoam cups.
- Replace plastic cotton buds with bamboo cotton buds, plastic combs with natural wooden combs, carry your own steel crockery, cutlery, steel or bamboo straw, and keep cups to restaurants and cafes.
- If you happen to be a cafe owner, give your clients a small discount for bringing their own keep cups.
6. Embrace the three Rs Reduce Reuse Recycle
- Be driven by need not want. Do you really need that five dollar t-shirt, which has most likely been made, in a sweat shop by an underpaid worker?
- If you do not buy clothes does that mean you end up old and frumpy? Not quite. The key is to invest in good quality staples - trousers, blazers, jackets. Refresh your wardrobe every season with one or two on-trend items.
- Get the maximum use out of your clothing, home wear and accessories. Recycle household goods. I will give you an example - my towel has had its day. It is fraying and about to die. I will give it a new lease of life. I will cut it up, layer it and make it into a bath mat.
7. Think before you Trash
- You can recycle extra calico bags into library bags, kitchen wipes or a pot holder, make a crossbody bag out of an old pair of jeans or maybe a scrunchie out of a stained silk cushion.
- Donate to charity as a last resort. Around this time of the year charities are flooded with donations. If I have to donate anything, say clothing or household goods, I would call up the charity of my choice, Diabetes Australia, and ask them what donations they are accepting. I would give just that, say wearable clothing.
8. Say no to Plastic
With this one, we do not have a choice. In the 60s, plastic became popular because of its longevity. It is this longevity that makes plastic nefarious. Plastic j does not go away for 200 years. It gags our marine life, suffocates our animals, pollutes our atmosphere and water bodies, settles in our lungs and ends up on our plates as microplastic. Microplastic has been linked with several health problems. If you are using plastic even now, you are doing so at your own peril.
9. Get Moving
Get off that couch and start moving. At least twice a week, I walk to the post shop to do my parcel drops. I take my time out from my computer and my desk. I get my exercise. I make friends with the girls at the post shop. This entire exercise is good for my mental health, good for my physical health and good for my eyesight.
10. Go Green Breathe Clean
This one is a no-brainer. If we go green, we will be removing pollution from the environment. If we do not go green, the pollution will persist. There will be more tsunamis and earthquakes, grasslands will go bare, animals will go extinct. We will suffer from pollution related illnesses
Every time I speak at a conference, a webinar, a seminar, there would be that one person, who would come up to me and say, I am just one human being, what difference would it make if I say no to plastic? Trust me, it will make a difference. Every baby step will matter. These baby steps will join to form a movement to make this planet a greener place for you. for me and for the future generations.