Why Don’t People Buy Environmentally Friendly Products?
Aug 30, 2010 Environmentally Friendly
Lots of people want to be more environmentally friendly. Not everyone; in fact, some are downright opposed to the idea, and strongly. But even those who want to be more eco friendly in their homes won’t buy the products. Why is that?
Confusion
Confusion may be a large part of the problem. The various claims are confusing and often misleading. People don’t always know which products are really eco friendly versus merely being greenwashed.
Uncertainty About Quality
Many people aren’t at all certain that eco friendly products are going to be as good as conventional products. Conventional products are comfortable to use, and people know what they do. They’ve been using them after all.
Eco friendly products, on the other hand, are less well known. Many people don’t have a friend familiar enough with the products to share success stories or to say to avoid particular products that don’t work so well.
Many eco friendly products are not advertised in the same way conventional products are. You don’t see them on television so much unless they’re made by one of the big brands. While some don’t like to admit it, such advertising has a big effect on how products are viewed.
Hard to See Personal Benefit
Telling someone that a product benefits the environment is great. Lots of people like to hear that. But it’s hard to get people to take action without a quickly obvious personal benefit.
That’s much harder to demonstrate, as the basic benefit of using an environmentally friendly product is about the same as using a conventional product. The potential long term personal health benefits and benefits to the environment are much harder to see.
Cost
Eco friendly products are perceived as more expensive. That’s because many of the most visible products do cost more. Organic cotton products cost more. Hybrid cars cost more. Solar panels are expensive.
Yet many eco friendly products are easily affordable. Vinegar and baking soda work very well as cleaning products, but many people aren’t aware that they can be used in this way or that they do such a good job. Other eco friendly products can also be affordable.
“One Person Can’t Make a Difference”
Many people feel that what they do personally doesn’t make a significant difference. They’re both right and wrong about that.
Choosing eco friendly products can be better for your health, and while you can’t define that difference much of the time, it can be a difference.
But even more important is that as each individual makes the choice of buying eco friendly products shows businesses that it’s worth their time and money to provide eco friendly products. Choosing to do business with companies with eco friendly practices makes it worth their while to continue to improve those practices. It takes more than one to make that difference, but if individuals don’t make those choices, the pressure never builds up on the businesses to make the change.
Does Buying Eco Friendly Clothing Really Help the Environment?
Aug 9, 2010 Going Green
Choosing eco friendly clothes is a common piece of advice for families who are trying to go green. Clothing is something we all need, and with kids in the house, new clothes are needed pretty often. Wondering if your shopping habits are really making a difference isn’t a bad thing; it just shows that you’re really thinking about the impact you’re having/
What Is Eco Friendly Clothing?
The first thing you need to figure out is just what is meant by eco friendly when it comes to clothing. Clothes made from organic cotton come easily to mind for most of us. Bamboo is a popular material now. But to really get into eco friendly clothes, you need to go beyond the simple categories.
Handmedown clothes are eco friendly. You’re reusing clothes that someone else was done with.
Clothes bought at thrift stores are eco friendly. Same deal as with handmedowns.
The clothes you have in your closet aren’t going to get any more un-eco friendly, so long as you care for them in environmentally friendly ways.
That’s important to remember. Going green is not all about shopping.
Worrying about whether the materials used to make the clothes matters most when you’re buying new. That’s when you get into organic cotton and other such materials. They matter most when the materials used are new to your purchase.
Does Buying Organic Cotton Clothes Make a Difference?
You can feel as though the difference in how your clothes are produced is a small issue, environmentally speaking. We’re so far removed from where the cotton is grown and processed that it’s easy to miss the harms.
Tremendous amounts of fertilizers and pesticides are used on conventionally grown cotton. This is bad for the land it’s grown on and for the lakes, rivers and oceans the excess water may runoff to. There’s a good post over on The Good Human called What’s So Bad About Non-Organic Cotton? that explains the situation well.
Buying organic cotton also means you’re supporting farmers who aren’t using so many potentially dangerous chemicals.
Clothes made from bamboo, even organic bamboo, are a bit more complex. Most bamboo cloth is chemically processed. Some of these chemicals are hard on the environment and on the workers using them. This processing turns it into a viscose or rayon fiber. It’s not as natural as many want you to think.
Overall, if you want to help the environment through the clothes you wear, really think about where they’re coming from, and don’t go for the huge wardrobe. Reduce how much you buy new, buy used when you can, and pay attention to how the new clothes are made. That’s the best way to limit the impact your clothes shopping has on the environment.
Sites to try:
Tags: clothes, green shopping, organic cotton, shopping, thrift stores
How to Make Your Wardrobe More Eco Friendly
May 3, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
Green is a great color for your wardrobe, whether you like to wear it or not. But I don’t mean the color. I mean having a wardrobe that is the eco friendly kind of green.
It’s really not that hard to make your wardrobe be kinder to the environment. This may not sound ideal to you, especially if you love buying new outfits, but you can make this work.
Thrift Store and Consignment Shops Are Your Friends
One of the easiest ways to have an eco friendly wardrobe is to focus on buying used clothes. It may not sound appealing at first, but you might be amazed at what you can find that has belonged to someone else first. An amazing number of people replace clothing in their wardrobe after very few wearings. You can buy used clothes that look as good as new.
Thrift store shopping can be an adventure. It’s not the easiest way to shop sometimes. Some stores are better organized than others. You may find clothes from many years ago. Some outfits may look as though they’d do better as a Halloween costume than everyday clothing. Bring your sense of adventure and sense of humor when you head out to the thrift stores to shop.
When you’re done with an outfit, it can head back to the thrift store. If it’s still in good condition they’ll probably just sell it on.
If it’s not in good condition, find out if it’s welcome first. Some thrift stores sell torn and stained clothes in bundles as rags. Others just throw them out. It’s better if you are certain you aren’t just moving something from your trash to theirs.
And you could always make rags for yourself.
Find Eco Friendly Retailers
You can find all kinds of shops online and in some areas that offer eco friendly fashion for those times when you do need something new. Fair trade is a good option to look for.
You can find companies that make clothes using organic materials and use natural dyes. You can find vegetarian and vegan fashions. Just look around and see what suits your eco choices.
A tragic number of retailers still use sweatshop labor. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to where your clothes are coming from when you buy them new. Being green isn’t always just about the environment. You should be thinking about the human factor too.
Here are a few online retailers to consider:
Ragaboo Bamboo Clothing
Organic bamboo clothes for kids. Some really cute designs. It’s run by a mom of four boys, so she knows what kids can put clothes through.
Turning Life
Sells apparel and more. They’re a Certified Partner of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership, member of the Green Business Network™ of Green America and buys carbon offsets for ZERO Carbon Footprint Shipping. With all that it’s no surprise that they offer products made from organic and sustainable materials.
Ruby Pinwheels
More children’s clothing, and ever so cute! They focus on providing products for children that are eco-friendly, organic and made under fair trade conditions.
It’s not always going to be easy to find just the right outfit from an eco friendly source. That’s still pretty challenging. But you might be surprised by the many great green options you do have when you try.
Tags: clothes, green shopping, shopping, thrift stores, wardrobe
How Do You Get Around the Poor Selection of Eco Friendly Products at the Store?
Apr 2, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
Some days it’s hard being green. You try and you try, but you just can’t find everything you need in an eco friendly variety. And too many products appear to be merely greenwashed, not really green at all.
Simply put, the selection of eco friendly, high quality products available locally sucks sometimes. It’s better than it used to be, but still not great in some areas.
But you aren’t as stuck as you think you are.
Make Your Own Cleaning Products
When it comes to things like cleaning products for around the house, you don’t need to figure out which brand to trust in a lot of cases. You can make your own.
In some areas this is incredibly easy. Just get the big size of baking soda and vinegar and you can do an amazing amount of cleaning around your house with just those two products.
You can find recipes online to make your own laundry detergent from products that are pretty easy to find locally. Be ready to experiment to find the ones that work best with the water you have in your area.
When you make your own cleaning products you don’t have to worry about the greenwash. You know what went into it. You’ll know if anything is even mildly toxic. You’ll know which products you can hand to the kids and make them do the work without worrying that they’ll taste it, no matter how young they are.
That’s the beauty of using things like baking soda and vinegar. No more locking cabinets due to dangerous chemicals. You can let the kids explore.
Shop Online
If you can’t find it locally, online is a pretty good choice too. You can find cleaning products that really are better for the environment. You can research the claims and find out which companies to believe and which are taking advantage of the lack of regulation on most green claims.
And you don’t even have to drive to get to the internet.
You can find eco friendly cosmetics that are also better for your skin. You can find organic or fair trade clothing and home decor items. You can find just about anything you might need.
Shopping online and having things shipped to your home can be more eco friendly than driving around to buy the items. The products have to be shipped to your area anyhow. Buying online means the delivery truck takes them to your door.
The disadvantage is that buying online means you aren’t supporting a local business. But especially for products that you might have bought from a big box store if you shopped locally, it’s not necessarily all bad.
You should of course shop locally for food. Local produce is one thing the internet can help you locate, but it probably can’t get it sent to your door.
Online shopping still requires a good bit of research to get it just right. But once you know what you’re doing it’s really not all that hard to find your way around the greenwash and to the products that really are kinder to the environment.
A Few Sites to Consider
EarthWaveLiving.com offers Modern Homesteading, Sustainable Living, Emergency Preparedness, and Much More…
Green Nest – More natural products for your home.
Only Natural Pet Store – Natural, holistic and organic supplies for your pets.
Greenbatteries – Offers great prices on rechargeable batteries, battery chargers, battery cases and holders.
ReusableBags.com – A critically acclaimed line of reusable shopping bags plus a growing family of smart, earth-friendly products all designed to help you reduce, reuse and save.
Ruby Pinwheels – Offers eco friendly, organic and fair trade children’s apparel and personal care items.
Tags: eco friendly products, green shopping, greenwashing, online shopping, shopping
Great Green Toys for Toddlers
Feb 26, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
As babies become toddlers, they start to take more of an interest in playing with toys. The challenge comes in avoiding the parade of plastic toys and keeping things a little better for your tot and the planets. Here are some suggestions:
Plan Toys Punch and Drop
Plan Toys
The Punch and Drop is your classic hammering toy. Kids have played with these for a long time, and there’s a reason why they keep making them. Kids enjoy hammering. The colors are great too.
And you can’t forget the lack of batteries!
Educo Alphabet Abacus
The Educo Alphabet Abacusis the kind of thing that can hold my toddler’s attention for a long time. She’s very much into anything brightly colored and fairly complex. Pictures in books and magazines get her babbling too.
This has the advantage of giving her something to look at as we sing the alphabet song. She loves music of any sort and even babbles along. Using any sort of visual may eventually help her to start pointing out letters at a young age without quizzing her all the time. Early exposure helped my older two, anyhow.
iTunes
No, it’s not a toy as such. But it’s a great idea to expose your baby to all kinds of music very young. But rather than buy a musical toy, just find appropriate music to download on the computer you already own. Get that toddler dancing!
WONDERWORLD Puffy Dragon Ride-on
Is the WONDERWORLD Puffy Dragon Ride-on cute or what? I mean really!
My one year old is very much so into ride on toys. She started liking them before she could walk, of course. This looks nice and soft as well as fun.
And I could never resist saying my child rides a dragon! He’s made from rubberwood and biodegradable fabrics.
Tags: green toys, natural toys, shopping, toddler
