Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste)

See below the Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste) Sub-Actions. Click or tap the sections further below to reveal a summary of the benefits of using eco-friendly products and services (and reducing waste), future-gazing to help visualise how this would work for you, a thought-provoking video, a step-by-step guide outlining how to achieve this Top Action, expert tips, and useful links and references.

It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and complete them all at once. Visit our Approach page for other tips on how to set yourself up to minimise your environmental impact and get to net zero carbon.

Want to progress this Top Action? Start by making your commitment using the button below, which will help to motivate you to keep progressing.

Have you completed this Top Action already? Select the appropriate button below to update your progress. You would need to complete:

• all the Halfway (0.5) Sub-Actions to complete half of the Top Action.
• all the Halfway (0.5) and Full (1.0) Sub-Actions to fully complete the Top Action.

When we make a purchase, we are making a choice about what we support, and every purchase is a new opportunity to make a positive difference in the world. To make a product requires raw materials to be extracted, manufacturing to be undertaken, and workers to be employed to carry this out. Products can have a high environmental and human cost, depending on how this is managed. Services (e.g. leisure activities) typically have a lower environmental cost than products.

Unfortunately, the majority of what we buy is not eco-friendly but is damaging to the environment. It is recommended to embrace “sufficiency” and buy fewer products (see the Buy fewer products (re-use and repair) EcoTracker Top Action) although we cannot function in the modern society without some products. If we inform ourselves about the eco-friendly and environmentally damaging options available we can make conscious choices about our purchases and keep our conscience clear by supporting what we believe in.  

Using eco-friendly products and services allows us to maintain our lifestyle whilst reducing our environmental impact. Some products and services may have a less negative impact than standard options while others will actually make things better i.e. having true eco-friendly credentials in which the purchase of a product or service supports nature conservation and maybe also positive social change. Eco-friendly products and services may cost a similar amount to the less eco-friendly choices available or they may cost a bit more. No huge upfront investment is required, you simply need to make a conscious choice to pick an eco-friendly option when you buy something.

Learning about eco-friendly products and services is interesting and can inform you of many issues going on around the world; it is essentially a new skill to develop which will broaden your horizons. To make our choices easier, there are lots of types of product labelling out there covering many issues.

Eco-friendly products and services might even have unexpected benefits e.g. natural hygiene products may actually work better for you!

Some types of products or services are particularly associated with certain types of negative environmental impact. Palm oil is added to many foods, hygiene and cosmetics products, but its overconsumption causes deforestation across rainforests, particularly across South East Asia. It is popular because it is very efficient – a lot of palm oil is produced per unit of land area – however, this widespread consumption of palm oil has become highly damaging. By choosing a appropriate products we can reduce our palm oil consumption and help to preserve what is left of such pristine rainforest environments.

More widely known about are the many damaging impacts of humanity’s love affair with plastics. Plastic is used for much packaging as it is light and durable. It keeps food fresh, reducing food waste.

However, plastic gradually breaks down into ever smaller fragments but does not biodegrade for a very long time, if at all. It enters the natural world, causing various issues for wildlife and contaminates environments. Large plastic containers and bags and discarded fishing lines and nets may trap or injure or kill animals. Plastics are slowly broken down into microplastics which are now absolutely everywhere including in our rivers, oceans, soils and even our tap water. Microplastics are ingested by small organisms and move up the food chain. Plastics gather in the stomach and elsewhere in organisms including humans, affecting their health in ways that we do not fully understand. Cox et al., 2019 estimated that we ingest and inhale approximately 100,000 microplastic particles every year. This is essentially an experiment in how much microplastic organisms can tolerate within their systems. We don’t know the answer but it would be best to avoid finding out. By reducing our plastic use, we are protecting our long term health as well as the health of organisms across the planet.

Try and imagine how your life will be and how you will feel when you complete this EcoTracker Top Action. This may feel like a big change or a small change, but really focus on how the benefits of the change could impact and improve your life and the lives of others.

For instance try and imagine how you will feel about:

• your reduced environmental impact which will help avoid the worst effects of climate change and ecological breakdown within your lifetime, helping to ensure you and others can live a long and full life.
• improved long term prospects for your children and future generations, who will have a much greater opportunity to avoid climate change and ecological breakdown during their lives. They will be much safer than in the alternative future of extreme climate change and ecological breakdown and many lives will be saved. Will you be able to look your child in the eye in years to come and say that you have done everything you can to protect their future?
• improved opportunities and social justice (climate justice) for those around the world who are currently struggling with the early impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown, with many lives and livelihoods saved.
• maintaining your lifestyle whilst reducing your environmental impact and even supporting environmental and social improvements through your purchases.
• supporting what we believe in and companies that deliver this.
• learning about how to identify eco-friendly products.
• finding some exciting new products you never knew existed.
• learning about many issues from around the world and supporting struggling communities.
• helping to reduce deforestation of rainforests.
• helping to avoid widespread plastic pollution and damaging impacts for humans and wildlife.
• some of the above may be really life-changing for you.

An effective way of developing a commitment and ongoing motivation to progressing this EcoTracker Top Action is to work out which of the themes above generate the most powerful emotional responses for you personally. Then try to capture this in some way and store it for when you might need motivation later.

You might be able to create a strong image in your memory, or a link to existing memories. You might want to write down how you feel say on a post-it note or in a diary as a reminder; perhaps somewhere that you will regularly see the message or somewhere you can come back to when you want to. You might even want to share this on your ‘progress thread’ on social media. If you are feeling creative, perhaps even draw an image to represent your future. Also, consider whether you might already have an object which could trigger your motivation e.g. a picture of your children.

These steps are generic because this is your unique personal journey and you will need to explore the details for yourself, using this process and the Expert Tips below as a guide and support.

The time required to complete steps may vary quite a lot depending on your resources or skill level, or whether or not you do the work yourself or pay a professional to do it. It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and do them all at once, and so you may go through steps multiple times for the different Sub-Actions before you have completed the Top Action.

1. Build motivation from within to complete this EcoTracker Top Action, assisted by reading the Benefits and Future-gazing to imagine how your life will improve (10 minutes)
2. Make a personal commitment and share this to social media (5 minutes)
3. Book a time in your diary for progressing your EcoTracker actions – you may wish to set up a regular slot for taking actions (5 minutes)
4. Research – read the guidance on this EcoTracker Top Action page such as the Expert Tips and you may wish to visit the community for support (30 minutes +)
5. Discuss with others in your household and agree broadly what you will do (15-30 minutes)
6. Get the resources lined up e.g. find what you need online, locate or borrow/rent/buy the materials and tools (2-3 hours)
7. Make a final decision on exactly what you will do and book in a date (15 minutes)
8. Complete all Sub-Actions to enable you to complete the Full Top Action (5 + hours)
9. Visit our Tracker page, and share your progress to social media (5 minutes). You may want to share your progress as you go through the steps for each Sub-Action.
10. Once you’ve mastered this Top Action, why not also help others in the community complete their’s, with tips and support (1 minute, periodically)

Don’t blame yourself for your past habits, but choose to focus on what you can improve. Similarly, choose not to blame others in your household or elsewhere for their current or past habits, but to point out to them the damaging impacts of certain products and services and the opportunities for and benefits of choosing eco-friendly products. Encourage and support others to make changes (e.g. by using EcoTracker). You may need to focus on and persist with some of these changes for weeks or months before they become new habits that you don’t need to think about. See the Approach page for further suggestions on developing habits.

We live in a throwaway society, where product manufacturers make cheap new disposable products for short-term use. This has unfortunately become the expectation for how we live. It may help to try and develop a mindset in which you take responsibility for your purchases and your possessions and try to do your best to make sure the products you buy are needed and robust, and that the possessions that you no longer want are maintained and passed on to someone else. Even if your products and possessions no longer have value for you, consider the energy that has gone into producing them and the environmental impact caused; you could consider yourself to be their steward, making sure they retain their value and get to the next suitable place on their journey, in line with the waste hierarchy as illustrated by DEFRA:

The first step is to inform yourself about the eco-friendly and environmentally damaging options available.

When you become knowledgeable, you can then make conscious choices about our purchases and keep your conscience clear by supporting what you believe in.

There are many products that we regularly purchase; although each purchase may have a relatively small environmental impact on its own, the regular purchases add up to a large overall impact. Such regularly bought purchases also give you more chance to change to an eco-friendly option another time you make the purchase, so you there are a variety of ways you can approach this e.g. all at once or gradually over time. To break this down you might want to try researching one type of product per week or going through the products you regularly purchase that are stored in different rooms or cupboards in the house in turn.

The larger your purchase and the longer its expected lifetime, the more important it is to get it right and so the more important it is to spend time researching to ensure you make an eco-friendly choice.

Services (e.g. leisure activities) typically have a lower environmental impact than products so if you are determined to spend some money try refocusing your purchases on services rather than products possible, and create some amazing memories at the same time! Consider trying a new eco-friendly hobby.

To learn about palm oil, have a look at the resources provided by Ethical Consumer, WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard, Products Without Palm Oil and Say No to Palm Oil.

High level tips for reducing your palm oil consumption and environmental impact include:

• Choose eco-friendly products which don’t require palm oil or similar. For instance, if you regularly eat chocolate spread and can’t avoid palm oil, consider eating jam instead.
• Choose products which substitute other additives to carry out the same function as palm oil, but beware not to swap out palm oil for a worse offender! Review palm oil free lists such as those provided by Ethical Consumer or Products Without Palm Oil.
• If you do have to buy products with palm oil, choose products or brands with sustainable palm oil e.g. certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), or listed in a useful checklist by Chester Zoo or better performers on the WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard.
• If palm oil is not listed, it may still be included in another form. Look out for the following words to avoid within chemical ingredients which are likely to indicate palm oil: PALM, STEAR, LAUR or GLYC.
• Choose to reduce consumption of processed foods such as biscuits and chocolates which often have palm oil. This will also help with the Eat an eco-friendly diet EcoTracker Top Action.

To learn about plastics, have a look at the resources provided by Clear on Plastics.

High level tips for reducing your plastic consumption, waste and environmental impact include:

• Choose to avoid buying plastic clothing to avoid releasing thousands of microplastics with every clothes wash; you might be surprised how many of the clothes you wear are mostly or entirely made of plastic. Jumpers and sportswear are particularly bad offenders, and cheaper clothing is more likely to be plastic based. When you are buying clothes, take a moment to check the label and where possible avoid buying clothes including plastic fibres such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and polyamide.
• Choose to wash and dry your plastic-based clothes in ways that reduce the shedding of microplastics, for instance:
  • Less microfibres will be released at 30°C and at lower spin speeds.
  • Get a Guppyfriend bag to put your plastic clothes in when they are washed; this captures the microfibres so they don’t escape into the environment.
  • Air dry rather than tumble dry your clothes.
• Choose to avoid single-use items whenever possible, and take re-usable items with you such as drinks bottles and shopping bags whenever you might need them. Often single-use and ‘grab-on-the-go’ items involve plastic. Take a packed lunch if you will be out.
• Choose products with less packaging or non-plastic packaging.
• Choose to buy non-perishables in bulk in large packs if possible and there should be proportionally less packaging waste than if you buy in small packs e.g. more plastic is used to make 2 x 1 litre water bottles than a single 2 litre water bottle.
• Choose to buy food, hygiene or cleaning products from refill shops or in loose form, using your own containers.
• For personal hygiene, choose solid bars where possible rather than liquids in plastic bottles.
• Choose to get your milk delivered in glass bottles by the local milk van or services such as Milk and More.
• Be careful buying cosmetics, which may contain plastic microbeads. These are banned in the UK, but may still be available in many other countries.
• If you purchase plastics, take a moment to check they are recyclable and then recycle your plastics appropriately. Confusingly, plastics labelled as biodegradable and compostable may not be suitable for your recycling bin. In the UK, use Recycle Now to find out more about what you can recycle locally. Also, try contacting your local authority or community group which may have further details about your local recycling facilities.

To learn about eco-friendly product labelling, which can help identify suitable eco-friendly products, look out for and research and investigate the local product labels available in your country. It is important to recognise that no scheme is likely to be perfect, but do your research and decide what matters to you and what is most trustworthy. It is suggested you don’t agonise too much about small choices where there is no clear winner, but focus on where your choice can clearly make a difference in reducing environmental impact or ideally creating positive eco-friendly change. Read tips about eco-friendly product labelling at Explain That Stuff! Some relevant types of international product labelling, which focus on various topics, include:

• Organic – in the UK the Soil Association certifies a variety of products which are produced to organic standards. Different organic certification is available in other countries. Organic standards typically require approaches that promote ecological balance and conservation, promote cycling of resources, avoid using pesticides and fertilisers and avoid additional synthetic additives and processing.
• Fairtrade – which supports social objectives such as ensuring farmers and workers receive fair rights and pay.
• For fish – Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainably sourced fish.
• For Palm oil – RSPO sustainable palm oil (see above)
• Rainforest Alliance – which seeks to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency.

If you are having major construction works such as an extension built, this will have a much larger  environmental impact than most other choices you make, so it is critical to choose eco-friendly products in the construction where possible. It is also recommended that you follow similar principles for any smaller home improvements works. Major construction works will have a long lifetime, so ensure that you are taking all the opportunities to address the Reduce my home energy use,  Get low carbon heating and Get renewable electricity EcoTracker Top Actions so your home doesn’t need to be expensively retrofitted in future. You may need to challenge your architects and builders where necessary, as they may just want to design and build using traditional methods that are less environmentally friendly. It is highly recommended that you employ specialist architects and builders who will work with you to create an eco-friendly build rather than against you; this can make all the difference. Sustainably sourced timber-based products and construction methods will typically be clear winners and should be used wherever possible rather than brick, block and metal construction methods and products. Also consider using products with Environmental Product Declarations (which are outlined for UK products by ASBP), or those covered by ISO14001 certification or BES 6001 certification as outlined by the Building Research Establishment, and which can be searched at BRE’s Green Book Live.

When buying any timber products, not just for home extensions, the best way to ensure this is sustainably sourced is to choose FSC or PEFC certified products.

Across the EU, look out for the EU Ecolabel which may be present for a wide range of products and also some services.

For household electronic products including white goods, in the UK read about the current A to G rating system at Label 2020, although your old appliance may have been assessed against the EU energy labelling scheme system from A+++ to G which still operates across the rest of the EU. Choose highly rated products. See the Reduce my home energy use EcoTracker Top Action.

When buying products, identify and if possible choose options made from natural materials (e.g. timber or natural fabric) or with green credentials. Also choose to avoid products associated with notable polluting impacts, locations that might use forced labour or where the energy supply is heavily reliant on fossil fuel. Choose products you will use for a significant amount of time, that will have a long product lifespan and that are designed to be repaired and disassembled.

When buying products that are regularly bought for short term or single use, consider whether re-usable products are available. For instance, try re-usable make-up removal pads or female hygiene products.

There are some online retailers that are specialists in eco-friendly products that can avoid palm oil and plastic waste and may include appropriate product labelling. Examples include Big Green Smile, Peace with the Wild and DoneGood.

When buying services, identify and actively choose those with green credentials, such as Ecotalk the mobile phone provider. Look out for companies that:

• mention green issues as part of their goals.
• offer and / or use green products.
• take green actions.
• are vouched for by organisations you trust.

Consider all types of services including leisure, professional services, household services and others. If a company you use doesn’t tell you about how eco-friendly their service is, do ask them, so that they know this is important to their customers.

When buying either products or services, look for and choose to prioritise options that also have a clear environmental and / or social agenda, such as social enterprises. Such companies may carry out fantastic work using local employees to provide you with an eco-friendly product or service and then they still go further, investing their profits into a good cause for the benefit of the community.

When buying products for your baby, consider and try the ideas from One Kind Planet and Goodnet, such as using re-usable nappies and re-usable wipes rather than disposable options. Retailers such as Beaming Baby and Peace with the Wild can supply such eco-friendly products.

For babies and children, the products that you will use will only be needed for a short period (e.g. prams, cots, clothes, toys etc), so choose to get these second hand when possible and ensure they go to a good home when they are no longer needed. See the Buy fewer products (re-use and repair) EcoTracker Top Action.

Plastic:

WRAP, Clear on Plastics: https://clearonplastics.com/

Cox et al., 2019 (microplastic ingested and inhaled): https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517  

Recycle Now (UK only): https://recyclenow.com/

Guppyfriend (washing bags): https://en.guppyfriend.com/  

Milk and More (milk and juice service with glass bottles, and more): https://www.milkandmore.co.uk/   

Palm Oil:

Ethical Consumer: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/palm-oil/palm-oil-free-list

Products Without Palm Oil: https://productswithoutpalmoil.com/

Say No to Palm Oil: https://saynotopalmoil.org/

Chester Zoo Sustainable Palm Oil Shopping List: https://cdn.chesterzoo.org/sites/5/2019/06/6b9e6a5bbb42-Chester_Zoo_Sustainable_Palm_Oil_Shopping_List_v6_Dec_2020-1.pdf

WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard: http://palmoilscorecard.panda.org/file/WWF_Palm_Oil_Scorecard_2020.pdf

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: https://www.rspo.org/

Eco-friendly product labelling:

Explain That Stuff! https://www.explainthatstuff.com/eco-labelling.html

Label 2020 (electronic goods): https://energylabel.org.uk/the-new-label/

EU energy labelling scheme (electronic goods): https://ec.europa.eu/info/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/energy-label-and-ecodesign/energy-efficient-products_en

EU Ecolabel: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/documents/label_you_can_trust.pdf

Fairtrade: https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

Marine Stewardship Council (fish): https://www.msc.org/

Rainforest Alliance: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/

Soil Association (UK, organic certifier): https://www.soilassociation.org/our-standards/   

FSC (timber): https://www.fsc-uk.org/en-uk

PEFC (timber): https://www.pefc.co.uk/

DIY and construction (also see FSC and PEFC above):

ASBP (environmental product declarations): https://asbp.org.uk/online-briefing-paper/epd-uk-products

ISO 14001: https://www.iso.org/iso-14001-environmental-management.html

BRE (BES 6001): https://www.bregroup.com/insights/bes-6001-framework-for-responsible-sourcing/

BRE’s Green Book Live (BES 6001): https://www.greenbooklive.com/search/scheme.jsp?id=153

Online specialist retailers:

Big Green Smile: https://www.biggreensmile.com/

Peace with the Wild: https://www.peacewiththewild.co.uk/

DoneGood: https://donegood.co/

Examples of eco-friendly services:

EcoTalk: https://www.ecotalk.co.uk/

Eco-friendly parenting:

One Kind Planet: https://onekindplanet.org/animalkind/top-10-tips-eco-friendly-parenting/

Goodnet: https://www.goodnet.org/articles/18-green-tips-for-ecofriendly-parenting-list

Beaming Baby (products):https://beamingbaby.co.uk/our-ethics