How to Shop Sustainably in 5 Easy Steps

A step-by-step guide

Shifting to a more sustainable lifestyle can be a daunting task for someone new to minimalism and eco-friendly practices. This guide breaks down the easiest approach to get started with a structured guide to follow.

Above all, shopping sustainably is about being conscientious about the decisions you’re making.

This guide covers what would come after reducing, reusing and recycling. We’ll focus on what to do when you’ve exhausted all other options and you actually need to buy something.

Search for second-hand items online

The most sustainable option for acquiring new items is to buy second-hand. Better yet, you can acquire items online for free. These options save products from reaching the landfill, keep money in your pocket, and allow you to feel less guilty about using products from unsustainable brands.

By purchasing products used, you avoid communicating a demand for more production.

These options work best locally since you avoid shipping costs and emissions associated with shipping.

I find that buying second-hand online is best suited for small, generic items like face cream, pet items, plants, small electronics etc. There is so much available here.

No-buy groups

There are several places you can acquire products for free or get rid of items for free. One option is to search for a local no-buy group. In my city, we have many of these groups which are organized by smaller geographic subdivisions. What I love about them is how they create a sense of community with people in the surrounding area and no one pays for anything. It seems to help young parents a lot! Best of all, with the restricted geographic area, you don’t need to waste too much gas picking up the items and might even be able to walk.

I’ve found this group on Facebook, but there are surely other forums available online for this purpose like Kijiji free listings and the same on Craigslist.

Trading

The next best thing from no-buy groups would be trading apps. You still need to exchange something, but that doesn’t need to be money. These groups are still organized locally which is great because there won’t be any shipping costs/emissions associated.

The app BUNZ is great for trading as long as you have a lot of participating members in your community. This is definitely something that works better in bigger cities with many users.

With BUNZ, you post items to trade and include a list of items you’re looking for. It works very similarly to transactions through Facebook Marketplace. You also accumulate virtual coins and can use those as your trading offer.

Similar to no-buy groups, you can find other alternative trading sources online on forums and websites like Kijiji and Craigslist.

Facebook Marketplace

If you’re looking for something specific or of higher value, you’ll typically need to exchange money for it. I have had the most success with Facebook Marketplace for acquiring specific items I’m looking for.

Any time I want something new like new face cream, for example, the first place I’ll look is Facebook Marketplace. I find this approach works best when you have a general idea of what you want, but you’re not tied to a specific brand. For example, it’s much easier to find a face cream by an expensive brand name than an Ordinary Moisturizing Factors + HA face cream.

Like the options above, I love how you can get these items around your city so it’s as if you walked into a store except that the items cost less and you didn’t have to contribute to the demand for that item. You also have the option to negotiate the price with the seller, which I find very useful for bigger ticket items.

Refurbished electronics

When it comes to electronics, it is riskier to purchase them or trade them in online groups. They can be fake or faulty and there’s no way to return your items if they’re defective. I have purchased phones on Facebook Marketplace before, but I’m not sure I’d take that risk again even with the few benefits that exist (negotiating the price and avoiding shipping).

I feel more comfortable buying used electronics online for a few reasons. Usually, they’re priced much more reasonably than the new item and they offer a guarantee for how close to new they operate. If you buy from a bigger source like Amazon pre-owned products, you can even see reviews from people who have previously purchased the item you’re interested in.

Recently, I bought a refurbished wireless keyboard for myself through Amazon and when it came in, I thought it was new. It was perfect and a few months in, I haven’t noticed any issues.

Another motivation for buying electronics this way is that electronics are one of the worst product types to manufacture in terms of the damage done to the environment. Many unsafe and unsustainable practices go into mining the materials needed to build modern-day electronics and so I do not intend on ever buying them new if I can avoid it. This should be a topic for a whole other post.

Buying lightly used electronics is a great way to stay with the current tech while keeping one more product out of the landfill and not contributing to the demand for new electronics.

Visit a thrift store

For larger items like furniture or things you need to inspect first, I find visiting a thrift store is the best option. Thrift stores are great for home goods like sets of plates and for clothing.

At a thrift store, you can typically expect a much greater selection than what you might find on some of the free or paid options online. This can be a good thing and a bad thing because it helps you get access to more, but you also have to sift through things that may not necessarily suit you.

Because of the low prices, it can be hard to avoid the temptation to pick up many things. Going in with a list will make the enormous amount of selection less overwhelming to sort through because you can quickly ignore 90% or more of the items.

It’s important to acknowledge that thrift stores were originally built for underprivileged folks. When wealthier individuals shop at thrift stores, the price drives up and this makes it more difficult for the people who need access to them.

However, the focus here is to reduce the number of new products we are buying. I am still presenting this as an option, but it’s important to be aware that this should not necessarily be the first place to check.

For a more in-depth look at thrifting, check out this article: A Quick Guide to Thrifting with a Purpose and Plan

Visit a local store

If you are looking for something very specialized that is difficult or unsanitary to find second-hand in a store or online, visiting a local store can be a great next step. For example, if you were looking for cloth diapers, a menstrual cup, or locally made honey, a local store or farmers market would be a good place to start.

The environmental impact of buying locally is low compared to buying from a big box store or online shopping because there are little to no shipping emissions involved. I find that local brands are often aware of this eco-friendly point and really lean into it with sustainable packaging or by offering take-back programs.

On top of this, there’s a really nice homely touch to buying something locally. Beyond the environmental benefits, there are also moral and economic positives to keeping local businesses alive.

Some of the most unique items may be found in local shops and if the memory sticks with you, you might be more likely to hang onto an item for longer. This helps reduce your likelihood to repurchase or dispose of the item at some point.

These items also tend to cost you a pretty penny which is tough to deal with but might also make you think twice before making the purchase and then eventually disposing of it. It’s important to consider the whole life cycle of an item when you’re making a purchase. Especially the life cycle of something new.

Look for sustainable packaging

If you simply cannot find what you are looking for second-hand or in a local shop, the next consideration would be packaging choices.

There are many good reasons why a person might choose to order something new online or to buy from a big box store. This article is going out during the global pandemic and many people prefer ordering online where they are safe from life-threatening germs. As well, some items are inaccessible to some from local stores or second-hand if these stores are too expensive or too far or if second-hand alternatives are not available.

If I were looking for a specific name brand of cream that I know works for me and is healthy and safe, I may opt to buy this in-store over taking a more expensive alternative from a local specialized store for example.

In this case, the best you can do is to minimize the impact of your purchase through the choices you make in-store (or online store). One way to accomplish this is by focusing on minimal packaging.

Low/no liquid

There are some household items that come in a liquid format that are very wasteful to the environment. Think dishwashing soap, hand soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. The majority of these items are mostly water which is problematic for a couple of reasons.

First, this makes the weight of the product heavier than what it needs to be and that results in greater emissions when shipping the items. Second, in order to contain liquid products, it’s usually cheapest to use plastic packaging.

Solid alternatives that do not need to be packaged in plastic exist for many of these liquid products.

For example, the laundry detergent I use is Soap Nuts, which are dried hollow nuts from a tree in the Himalayas that produces a natural detergent when wet. The packaging is paper and they are much lighter, cheaper, and last longer than classic liquid laundry detergent.

Another brand I’ve seen heavily promoted on social media is Tru Earth. I haven’t tried them, but I think they have a strong concept. Their product comes in the form of thin sheets you can add to your wash loads and they completely break down. Because they are so thin, they are packaged in small paper envelopes, which is more efficient to ship.

Personally, the Soap Nuts are still the option for me because I just looked at the price of Tru Earth and I think you get way fewer loads for the price than you get from Eco Nuts. Depending on the settings you use to wash your clothes, you can reuse the nuts for multiple washes, so in my experience, they last very long. The only thing you want to keep in mind is that they are harvested in Nepal and some have raised concerns about whether this is an exploitative practice on the indigenous Nepalese people. The Eco Nuts site claims the berries are sourced ethically and they have an article about their partnership with the Nepalese people who harvest them, so I can leave that up to you to decide where you stand.

Many soaps and shampoos even come in bar format in paper packaging. With a little research, you can find many alternatives available online and the list is only increasing.

Paper packaging

A big one to look for is paper packaging if you have to buy something in-store or online. Oftentimes, you’ll have several options for the same types of products and so aiming for the ones with paper packaging is a good strategy when you have choices.

Often, your choice will be between thin plastics and paper. Thin plastics are very hard to recycle because they jam machines in the recycling plant and can result in whole batches of recycling being sent to the landfill. Paper packaging is much easier to recycle and is less likely to contaminate a recycling batch.

The weight of paper is not hugely different from the weight of thin plastics, so weight is less of a factor here and the ability to recycle becomes more important. Nowadays it is becoming increasingly possible to find paper packaging in stores because brands are becoming aware that consumers want this.

Aluminium packaging

Aluminium packaging is a fantastic choice for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, aluminium is one of the only resources on the planet that is infinitely recyclable. It’s not difficult to recycle, so it is something we should opt for when looking for packaging we’re not looking to reuse (or something we need to purchase regularly since we don’t want to accumulate and try and reuse too many of this item).

Another upside to aluminium packaging is that, like paper packaging, it is fairly lightweight, so it doesn’t add a ton of unnecessary weight during shipping. Unlike paper packing however, it is much more durable, so it can be better for items that need to be stored in a moisture-proof container.

One particular item I’ve recently purchased was toothpaste tablets by the brand hello (also sold at Walmart) that came in an aluminium container. Not only did I like the fact that I could recycle it in the future, but I also liked the fact that it was durable and had a lid. This made it an attractive container for bits and bobs while camping or travelling. I thought about using it to hold my DIY tinder for my recent camping trip.

If you look hard enough, you might be able to find several other items in aluminium packaging. I’m aware of Toothpaste tubes by the brand Davids (which has fluoride and non-fluoride options) for example.

Glass packaging

Glass packaging is a nice option because it is infinitely recyclable.

Glass is helpful because it is much more durable than paper, so it is easy to reuse and repurpose for other things. For example, I use old glass pasta sauce jars as plant pots when I’m propagating my plants.

You can bring glass jars around with you to bulk stores so that you’ll have zero waste from your purchases.

However, I see glass as a slightly less viable option compared to reducing liquids and opting for paper packaging for a couple of reasons.

Glass packaging is the heaviest option compared to paper and plastic packaging, which means that the emissions associated with transporting it are higher. As well, glass is easy to break, so while it is possible to recycle, it can become dangerous for recycling management workers and for yourself. Products packaged in glass may also be less accessible because they are more expensive and are often targeted toward wealthier people following an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Biodegradable packaging

This one may be harder to find than the others. I have never come across this in a store.

Of course, there is always paper packaging that is sometimes biodegradable (as long as it isn’t mixed with plastics or other coatings or has toxic ink), but here, I’m more referring to online order packaging that is meant to mimic plastic and keep things dry.

These packages are typically made of plant materials and claim to be biodegradable. I would take these with a grain of salt because I think it’s still a relatively new practice and hasn’t been thoroughly tested yet. I’ve seen some cases online where people have put these in their personal composts and didn’t see the items break down (or maybe they just take much longer).

A few clothing brands I’ve ordered from with biodegradable packaging have been Sheertex tights and Knix period underwear. It wasn’t advertised on the site as far as I remember, so it was a pleasant surprise when the packages arrived. I think this trend will grow, especially as younger generations have a growing demand for more sustainable and responsible retail practices.

Take charge of what packaging is available to you

Many of these products are becoming available in big-box retailers, making them more accessible to a greater population. When we show demand for sustainable products and packaging, this encourages retailers to focus more on those markets because they will be able to sell more if it’s what people want.

A more active approach to this is to email brands and retailers to let them know what you like and don’t like about their products. Companies take consumer feedback seriously even if it doesn’t seem that way after sending one email. If enough people send emails with similar messaging, the point will get across. It is in their best interests to serve the customer if they want to stay afloat in an ever-more competitive industry.

One perfect example of this is the Native Deodorant brand. They offer an aluminium-free deodorant with simpler ingredients and a natural fragrance. Previously, their packaging was a plastic container similar to what most solid deodorant sticks are packaged in. After the people spoke out about how they wanted paper packaging, the company listened and they have since launched paper tube packaging for their product! It is not currently on the shelves in Canada (though the plastic version is available), but the paper packaging can be purchased through their online store.

Shop sustainable brands

This item had to fall last on the list because it is ironically the least sustainable option of them all.

There are different reasons why someone might want to support a sustainable brand over all of the other options listed above. For one, it shows that there is a demand in the market for more eco-friendly products in general and sends a signal that we want this to become the norm.

It’s important to remember that we’re human and that it’s really not possible to be 100% sustainable all the time considering the way the most influential companies and governments currently operate. Zero waste was intended to be a guideline for large corporations to follow so that their net waste produced is zero. It is completely valid to occasionally want to buy, say, some new shoes from a sustainable brand as an alternative to buying from a popular shoe retailer with poor eco-practices.

That being said, there are a couple of downsides to being aware of with sustainable brands.

First, they are usually targeting a small demographic population of people they feel aesthetically suit the eco-friendly lifestyle. That population is usually thin, white white, and wealthy. This is a problem because their marketing is not always diverse and they are also not always size-inclusive. As more and more sustainable brands pop up, this is becoming less of a problem.

Sustainable brands are also less accessible to many people because they are usually marked at a higher price point than their less sustainable counterparts.

Keeping in mind the current limitations with sustainable brands, there are a couple that interest me a lot.

Frank and Oak

Frank and Oak is a clothing brand I enjoy a lot. They mostly use sustainably sourced cotton.

What I find more interesting than cotton though is that they use a wide variety of interesting materials that are recycled and use innovative practices to ensure they are less harmful to the environment. Their website is fairly transparent on their practices and initiatives like using less packaging and doing carbon offsetting.

Pela

Pela is a brand I’ve been watching for a while. I think it was incredibly innovative that they offer a biodegradable solution for an increasingly fast-fashion-esque product (phone cases). Like Frank and Oak, they are a Canadian brand, so they hold a soft spot in my heart.

Recently, they came out with a new composting product that can be used indoors and that quickly turns organic waste into compost.

My only issue right now is that they don’t offer a phone case for my phone (Huawei Mate 20 Pro) and it isn’t worth it to me to change to a more popular phone just to support their brand.

Fussy.

Fussy is a new British deodorant brand I found on Kickstarter. Their Facebook ad pitch caught my attention to the point where I decided to back their campaign. The deodorants have just arrived in the mail so I look forward to trying them out and will likely make a post about them after I’ve formed an opinion.

What I liked about their brand was that their packaging is made from plant waste materials and is biodegradable. When you run out of the product, you can order a refill. They had a few interesting scents to choose from including NIGHT TALES Flora (rose, ylang-ylang, cedar), WIDE EYED Citrus (mandarin, grapefruit, black pepper), BARE ALL Unscented, and more.

I liked this compared to Naked Deodorant (which I feel is the leading competitor in the natural/sustainable deodorant space) because there is only a plastic-free option available for fussy, whereas Native still sells plastic containers in the stores in Canada.

It was great to see them meet their funding goal and get started. I was impressed by their communication with the backers while they were going through the manufacturing process and getting ready to ship out all of the pre-orders. They sent the orders in recyclable packaging and I can already smell the lovely scents through the boxes.

There are many many more sustainable brands and the number is growing yearly. These are just some that I have been particularly interested in. Despite the limitations mentioned earlier, they are still a great option for people looking to up their shopping game with something more ethical and support companies trying to do a good thing.

I’ve included many Canadian examples in this list because that is the context I live in and try to support. However, it would be a great idea to look for similar alternatives from your country if you’re not from Canada 🙂

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