If one of your resolutions was to reduce excess waste, here are four easy lifestyle tips that any household can adopt throughout the new year.

The average Irish family wastes €700 on food a year, while around 110,000 tonnes of textiles are discarded as waste every year in the country.

Spokesperson for Food Cloud Angela Rutledge told Newstalk Breakfast that cutting down on unnecessary items for children’s birthday parties can be a good place to start.

“I think we could be saving a little bit of money and saving on our waste really easily if we didn’t do party bags,” she said.

“I think as a class, as a school, as a community, we can kind of set out our stall and manage expectations and say, ‘Look, no more to this’.

“That’s a really easy way to reduce some waste in the home.”

Children's birthday cake and party food spread. Image: Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy. 2013.

Ms Rutledge said communities should also set up gear exchange programmes for local sports clubs to reduce textile waste.

“When our kids start a new activity like GAA or football or cricket, they get a new jersey,” she said.

“These are like, five, six, seven-year-old kids, and they get a brand new jersey - there’s absolutely no need for it.

“So, like in our Scout troop, you hand back the uniform at the end and then when you start a new term, you just go in and grab the bigger size from a big bag.”

Community engagement

According to Ms Rutledge, building community relationships is the best way to encourage and support people to reduce their waste.

“Approach these ideas in a collaborative way and use the tools that we have - forums, WhatsApp groups – to try and build a consensus and work together,” she said.

“We could change our behaviour so quickly in just a term or a season.

“If we all work together and we proceed in a non-judgemental way – and you start small, you do one thing for one year and then build it from there.”

Ms Rutledge’s final piece of advice was to work hard and not let these habits slip when life gets hard.

Featured image: Household waste. Pic: Naoise Culhane Photography.