Resolutions for a more Sustainable Year

It’s never too late to come up with New Year’s resolutions is it?  Like many people, I’m trying to be more conscious about cutting down on plastic usage and eating more sustainably, so I thought I’d theme my resolutions around sustainability for 2019. And by sharing them with you, it means I’m going to have to stick to them!

Here’s 10 ways I intend to be more sustainable in 2019:

1) Who Gives a Monkey’s?

Did you see the (banned) Iceland advert before Christmas, which did a wonderful job of bringing the Palm Oil issue back into people’s minds? If we want to help prevent orangutans from having their habitats destroyed, we need to avoid using non-sustainable palm oil. The sustainable stuff is fine. I discovered an app, which helps you find which products contain non-sustainable palm oil. But the great thing is the Giki app isn’t just about palm oil, it also tells you if products are greener, healthier, kinder to animals and UK made. And if you’re a geek like me, you can get hours of fun by keying in all the products from your kitchen cupboards!

Resolution: Reduce non-sustainable palm oil useage

2) Eat your Greens

Mr Skylark and I already started cutting down our meat intake last year, although we seemed to slip off the wagon over Christmas. While I don’t yet want to give up meat altogether, I’d like to eat more vegetarian meals and only eat meat two or three times per week. Recent news articles have explained the amazing health benefits of eating fibre and how we can save the planet through changes in our diet, which ties in quite nicely with a more vegetarian diet. We both really enjoy the pesto butterbeans recipe (see below) from Deliciously Ella.

Resolution: Reduce meat consumption and increase fibre intake

3) Free as a Bird

Although I eat meat, I do care about how the animals are treated. At home, if we buy chicken it has to be free-range or organic. I also adhere to my rule about chicken when I go out. If a restaurant doesn’t serve free-range chicken, I won’t order it, which means I don’t eat a lot of chicken! I understand a lot of the way people buy chicken is about affordability, but if buying a whole free-range chicken yields several meals and a tasty stock or soup, I feel it’s worth it.

Resolution: Encourage local restaurants to serve free-range chicken

4) How to Win Friends and Influence People

I would like to use my blog to help promote those businesses who use/sell ethically sourced meat and fish, eco-friendly products or have vegetarian/vegan menus.

Resolution: Promote ethically minded businesses on www.allaboardtheskylark.com

5) Don’t get Clingy

I seem to have got into the habit of using cling film a lot in the kitchen. After dawning on me that it couldn’t be recycled, I started using more foil instead so I could clean and recycle it. I recently came across Natural Wraps as an alternative to cling film. These wraps are reusable pieces of fabric coated in beeswax or rice bran (vegan friendly). While they are certainly more expensive than a box of cling film, I’m hoping I’ll get plenty of use out of them.

Resolution: Stop using cling film

6) How do you Like your Tea?

A friend of mine bought me this lovely, reusable, bamboo eco-cup from Ecoffee Cup for Christmas. I’ll make sure I use it for hot drinks or even water, so I cut down on disposable packaging. According to an article in The Independent last year, the UK gets through 7 million disposable every day! #stopthe100billion

Resolution: Use my reusable cup

7) Who Gives a Crap?

You may have noticed already, but I’m keen to cut my plastic useage. There’s a new ‘Food Loose’ shop that’s opened near us in Cheltenham, which I need to investigate. I’ve also heard about an online company called Who Gives a Crap, who sell eco-friendly loo roll, which isn’t wrapped in plastic.

Resolution: Cut down plastic useage and use non-plastic wrapped loo roll

8) Cottoning On

While we’re talking plastic usage, it also occurred to me that women get through an awful lot of sanitary products each month, which all contain plastic, as well as being individually wrapped in plastic – all wrapped up in a nice plastic wrapper! So, I’ve just taken delivery of my first non-plastic, chemical-free, organic cotton items, ordered through the Ethical Superstore.

Resolution: Use eco-friendly sanitary products

9) Buy Local

Ok, so I know I’ve talked about ordering various eco-friendly items online, but I’d really like to support our high streets and buy local where possible. I also want to make use of our local butchers, greengrocers and bakers more, rather than just relying on supermarkets. This will have the added benefit of cutting down on petrol miles as well as (hopefully) reducing plastic useage.

Resolution: Buy from local shops more

10) Grow your Own

After growing a whole glut of tomatoes this summer, it made me realise we went months without having to buy tomatoes from the supermarket. Not only did it save money, they tasted so much better and didn’t come in plastic cartons either.

Resolution: Grow more salad leaves and vegetables

Are you trying to be more sustainable this year? If you have any tips, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.