Sustaining the environment is important. It affects everything, people’s health, animal health, the planet’s wellbeing and future. Sustaining the environment is proving difficult at this age because of innovations and production companies. Sustainable shopping has roles to play in sustaining the environment.
In this post, I’ll share the practices of sustainable shopping to sustain the environment.
What is Sustainable Shopping?
Sustainable shopping is making shopping decisions that aren’t detrimental to the planet and people.
Online or offline shopping involves taking decisions like:
- Where to shop?
- What brands to buy from?
- Cheap and inferior quality or expensive and durable?
- Product materials, compositions or constituents to choose and more.
With sustainable shopping, you protect the environment with your shopping decisions.
Shopping while having reducing landfills, wastes and carbon emissions in mind.
It’s a conscious effort to avoid contributing to earth troubles for a sustainable future for the planet and us.
Why you Should Shop Sustainably?
Shop sustainably to:
- Protect the earth
Non-biodegradable last for hundreds of years before breaking down, plastic takes 400 years.
Meanwhile, since plastic inception, industries have produced billions of plastic products, with tonnes ending in landfills and later in the ocean.
This ocean which helps to regulate our planet, absorb C02 and a source of protein to over a billion people, its ecosystem is being destroyed with over million tonnes of plastic yearly.
Sustainable brand recycles plastics and other non-biodegradable, and their products encourage reuse whereby reducing wastes, landfills and balancing the ocean ecosystem.
Non-biodegradable aren’t the only culprit from production industries affecting the environment adversely.
Manufacturing industries emit great greenhouse gases which drive global climate change, encompassing extreme weather conditions, rising sea level, shifting wide life populations and habitat.
Industry manufactured products also contain harmful chemicals to the environment.
Sustainably produced products avoid toxic chemicals in-productions and in finished products.
- Protect human and animal health
Production Industries emit greenhouse gases at a high level.
It causes human and animal respiratory diseases, and water related illness.
Likewise, burning of non-biodegradable isn’t friendly to animal and human respiratory systems.
Sustainably produced products are kind to human and animal health.
- Do greater good.
There’re nonprofit stores selling sustainable products as merchandise.
Shop sustainable items at these stores and your shopping extends beyond protecting the environment.
It becomes a service to humanity.
Examples of nonprofit selling sustainable products are Takataka plastics and our store, faces up store.
At faces Up Store, we sell sustainable laptop bags, pouch bags, purses and toiletry bags. We use 70% of our sales revenue to pay underserved children in Uganda school fees and 30% for our nonprofit operating cost.
Whatever you’re buying, be it fashion items, skincare, homeware or any products and goods, it’s important to shop them sustainably.
How to shop Sustainably?
These sustainable shopping tips will help whenever you’re buying any products or items online.
- Buy recycled products
There are sustainable brands recycling waste into useful products. Recycling wastes into useful items means fewer wastes in landfills and oceans, resulting in a sustainable environment.
Recycled products are fashionable and do what you want them to do.
At Faces Up store, we make our bags and purses feature designs from 100% recycled materials. And, we designed them for a zero waste movement. See them here and shop for environment sustainability.
Shop recycled products to sustain the environment.
- Buy second hand products
Second hand goods don’t always mean overused bad items.
People sometimes do away with items they are tired of using or clothes they’re tired of wearing, despite the item being in good condition.
Buying second hand products stops them from going to landfills and reduce carbon release while burning them or making new ones, sustaining the planet and people.
- Buy from sustainable brands
There are brands out there making and selling sustainable products. Likewise, there are online marketplaces like Package Free and Thrive market for sustainable brands.
Sustainable brands and online marketplaces are making the environment sustainable. Buying from them is saying yes to sustainability.
- Make research when buying from new brands
When you’re shopping at a new store or buying new items, do research the store and items.
Check whether the brand is a sustainable brand, check the item manufacturing compositions for toxic environment chemicals, look up unfamiliar compositions online and see how sustainable they are.
In clothes, avoid synthetic fibres like nylon, polyesters and replace with plant-based fabrics
In skin and hair care products, avoid parabens, phthalates and BHT.
Make research.
- Avoid trendy and fast fashion
Fast fashion copies celebrity fashion. Nether it nor trendy fashion is sustainable. Often, when the trendy times and ritz are over, we stop wearing the clothes or using the product.
Go for classy fashions, timeless fashion and regular items instead.
- Buy durable products
When you buy inferior quality and cheap products, you’ll need to replace it soon, that is more carbon emissions and waste release into the environment.
Most times the price difference between durable and cheap products is small. You’ll end up losing money thinking you are saving because while you ought to still have bought just one durable product, you’d have bought three cheap ones.
A big blow to the environment and your pocket. Durable items are sustainable and save money. A stone for two birds.
- Make excellent decisions while shopping
This sustainable shopping tip is for fashion items. Don’t merely buy them because they look good on the mannequin or shop attendants say it looks good on you.
Buy them when you’re wholesomely convinced the clothes fit and look good on you, and you genuinely need the item.
Double check your decisions before leaving the fashion store with the items to avoid regretting your shopping decisions days after.
Make excellent decisions to only shop what you need to better the environment.
- Shop reuseable product
Reusable tumblers and coffee bottles have been in markets for a while now. Coffee making business should use them and encourage their customers to use them.
Replace single use sanitary pad with reuseable menstrual cups, paper towels with table cloth and check here for other reuseable items you should replace with single use items.
- Donate, upcycle and fix
Making good decisions for the planet and people’s sustainability doesn’t end with shopping, it continues after.
Don’t dispose of or burn items you no longer need, upcycle them into useful piece, donate them to charity or sell on eBay. Don’t throw broken items out, fix them.
- Online shopping
People often question online shopping. They are skeptical about how sustainable is online shopping or if it’s more sustainable than offline shopping. Online shopping is sustainable if done right.
If you want to patronize sustainable brands, you’ll have to shop online as most brands on streets care less about environment sustainability.
Brands for sustainable products are online. To shop online sustainably, use these tips;
- Shop your needs at once online. Don’t buy them at different times to avoid releasing more carbon to the environment during different deliveries and packaging.
- Being intentional with your shopping will help to achieve this. Have a list of what you need, when you need them and you can save towards that time to avoid not having enough funds.
- Don’t reschedule deliveries. Have someone pick it up on your behalf if something unexpected comes up. Rescheduling deliveries burn fuels to deliver it again.
- Buy from brands transparent about their products or goods. Check online reviews before making purchases and used to get your clothing and shoe size to avoid making returns.