This Year, Make Sustainable New Year's Resolutions

This Year, Make Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions

As the New Year begins, millions of us with the best intentions set resolutions—many of which fade away by February. In 2025, let’s break that cycle! Let Eco-Cycle help you achieve your Zero Waste Resolutions!

Want to reduce your waste in 2025? If living a more sustainable, Zero Waste lifestyle is on your list, Eco-Cycle is here to help you succeed with these simple, impactful steps.

1) Trim Your “Waste” Line

Did you know that Americans generate over 292 million tons of trash annually—4.9 lb per person per day. Of this, only 32% is recycled or composted. In Colorado, the burden of our waste is much heavier! Coloradans produce on average over 5.6 lb of trash per day, and of that amount, only 16% is recycled or composted—half the national average! While systemic changes like Colorado’s Producer Responsibility legislation and the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act are making a difference, individual actions still matter.

Start by auditing your trash and identifying areas for improvement with Eco-Cycle’s How to Quit Plastics Guide.

2) Save Money

Zero Waste can lead to big savings! For example:

Thrift Shopping: Discover unique finds at thrift stores for a fraction of retail costs. Use our Tour de Thrift map to locate reuse stores in Boulder County.
Repair Clinics: Fix items instead of replacing them at free repair events like Boulder’s U-Fix-It Clinic.
Bulk Shopping: Cut costs by not paying for packaging. Locate bulk stores near you, or head to the bulk aisles of your local grocery store!

3) Eat Healthier

Avoiding unnecessary waste is a major goal for those striving for Zero Waste, and a lot of that excess comes in the form of food packaging. Opt for more “unpackaged” foods, such as fruits and vegetables, as well as bulk items like grains, nuts, and seeds. Go a step further by reducing not only packaging, but also the amount of food that ends up uneaten. Try these simple tips for reducing food waste, including planning out meals and using up food scraps to make soup broth and smoothies.

What you can’t eat, make sure you compost! Composting not only cuts methane emissions from landfills but enriches soil, helping it sequester carbon and combat climate change.

4) Spend More Time Outdoors and Support Your Soil

Make 2025 the year you start a composting pile at home! When organic waste (food scraps, yard trimmings, etc.) is buried in landfills, methane—a potent greenhouse gas—is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Composting organic waste avoids those methane emissions. In addition, healthy, compost-rich soil actually pulls significant amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere.

Check out our step-by-step guide on how to compost in your own backyard!

5) Be More Active by Volunteering

Hit the ground running in 2025 by becoming an Eco-Leader! Join a community of more than 1,000 local sustainability-minded individuals who stay active by attending Zero Waste trainings, getting involved in local Zero Waste campaigns, and serving as a sustainability resource for their offices, schools, and neighborhoods. Some Eco-Leaders take on big projects, and some take on small tasks, but any action makes a big difference in helping you and your community reduce waste.

6) Declutter Mindfully

Following the holiday festivities, January’s quieter days can be the perfect time to clear out and clean up. Here’s a look at some items commonly purged in the New Year that typically can be recycled (but check your local guidelines to make sure!):

Recycle these “hard-to-recycle” items at the Eco-Cycle Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM) located at 6400 Arapahoe Rd. in Boulder:

Electronics
Mattresses
Small appliances
White block foam
Plastic bags
Scrap metal
and more!

You can add these items to your curbside SINGLE-STREAM RECYCLING BIN in Boulder County:

Corrugated cardboard: It might look like nothing special, but this material is the bread and butter of recycling operations like the Boulder County Recycling Center. Please flatten boxes and remove excess tape.
Newspapers, office paper, and kraft paper: These items are typically recyclable in your curbside bin.
Calendars: Paper calendars are a fine addition to your recycling bins. Please remove any plastic covers.
Spiral notebooks and old planners: These are recyclable without removing the spiral binding, which gets screened out from paper in the remanufacturing process. Please remove plastic or non-paper covers and dividers, however.
See what else can be recycled in Boulder County curbside bins in Eco-Cycle’s recycling guidelines!

Finally, prevent the need to declutter by looking for ways to reduce waste at home, including cutting out the biggest “wasters” and swapping in the best Zero Waste “winners”!

However you plan to approach the New Year, we at Eco-Cycle hope that 2025 brings you closer than ever to living in harmony with this beautiful planet. Cheers to a Zero Waste future!