It’s no secret that the way we shop has a massive impact on the environment. The average American generates over 4,500 pounds of carbon dioxide each year from shopping-related activities alone!
That’s why it’s more important than ever to be mindful of where you buy your products from. Here are 8 sustainable online stores to replace some of your Amazon, Walmart, or Whole Foods shopping.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and purchase an item, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend stuff I love and would recommend to a friend.
ThredUp
ThredUp is sustainable online clothes shopping at its best. What started as a revolutionary mom-and-pop shop has now turned into a one-stop sustainable fashion destination.
From fast fashion to sustainable fashion brands, ThredUp has it all, and at a fraction of the cost. Here’s how they do it: they partner with brands and resellers to get quality clothes that would otherwise end up in landfills, and find new homes for them.
This means that clothes that are still in great shape don’t go to waste, and you get sustainable fashion at a pretty good price. You can search for clothing on the site by size, brand, color, fabric type, and more. They currently carry women’s and kids’ clothing including shoes, accessories, and hats.
If you’re interested in destashing clothing you’re no longer using and sending it to ThredUp, you can do that, too.
You can get a $10 credit on your first ThredUp order with my link if you want to.
EcoRoots
EcoRoots is a small, woman-owned online sustainable products shop that offers free U.S. shipping on orders of $45 or more. They carry kitchen products, beauty & skincare, bath & body, as well as hair care stuff. Most of their items are handmade in small batches and/or vegan and low-waste.
They have plastic-free shipping packages and all of their packaging is recyclable. EcoRoots is a good choice for finding sustainable alternatives to products you’re already using in your daily life. Their dish scrubbing brush with a removable brush head is one of my favorite sustainable items in my kitchen because you can keep the bamboo handle for years and just replace the brush head every 4-6 months or so.
Etsy
Shopping from small businesses on Etsy can be a decent way to shop more sustainably online. While looking for items from local small businesses is always a good idea since it cuts down on shipping emissions, Etsy does claim to offset its carbon emissions since 2019.
While Etsy has recently come under fire for raising their seller’s fees, at least they are making an effort to be more sustainable as a company. This doesn’t mean that everything you buy on Etsy is sustainable, but if you’re looking for sustainable products and gifts, Etsy is a solid place to do your shopping.
Here’s a breakdown of how Etsy offsets 100% of its shipping emissions if you’re interested in the specifics!
Zero Waste Outlet
Zero Waste Outlet is kind of cool because you can snag some all-time favorite sustainable brands without supporting Amazon. Things like Tru Earth laundry strips, No Tox Life dish soap bars, Unpaste Tooth Tabs, and Unpaper towels are sold here.
You’ll also find quite a few of your sustainable basics, like loofahs, bamboo brushes and scrubbers, wool dryer balls, silicone baggies, and those kinds of things. It’s just great to have an alternative place to shop for these items without supporting the ginormous corporations that highkey own all of us.
They offer free shipping on orders over $50 and do not use plastics in their packaging materials.
Check out Zero Waste Outlet here.
P.F. Candle Co
Love candles? Same. This place has well-priced (read: relatively affordable) candles that don’t look over the top snooty. And they are just about as environmentally friendly as candles can get. Gotta love it!
They also sell incense sticks and cones as well as car fragrances, if that floats your boat. Occasionally, they have sales for 20-40% off regular prices items, so be on the lookout for that around midsummer as well as black Friday. Support a husband and wife-owned candle company that cares about the planet and pays their employees fair wages by checking them out next time you’re looking for a new candle scent to try.
Imperfect Foods
If I was crazier or had more time on my hands, I’d honestly shout about Imperfect Foods from the rooftops. Why? Because in a world full of unsustainable meal kit subscription boxes, Imperfect Foods is doing convenient food-to-your-door the right way.
Imperfect Foods isn’t a meal kit service (those are really difficult to make sustainable) but a grocery delivery service subscription. I have mine set up to deliver a box of groceries to my house every two weeks, but you can get one as often as weekly. They offer a variety of sustainable brands and even some local produce.
They are a certified B Corp and believe in a circular system, which is a key term to look out for when you’re trying to identify sustainable brands that are not greenwashing. Imperfect Foods will pick up and re-use the non-recyclable packaging from your orders. This is usually the bubble wrap that surrounds your eggs as well as the insulating liner in your box that keeps your food chilled.
The prices for everything are fair and you get free shipping with grocery orders of $60+. Some grocery items I do still buy at Walmart (because of budget limitations or product availability) but I feel better about how we’re spending our grocery budget now.
Try Imperfect Foods with my link and get 20% off your first order.
Pela Phone Cases
So, I do not have an affiliate link for this one but I am still going to enthusiastically recommend Pela phone cases to you. They are compostable, y’all.
This is huge. Pela is a pretty well-known brand, but they are doing something great here and the world needs them for sure. I’m not one of those people who needs their phone case to match their outfit, but I do like to get a new case every couple of years.
If you think about it, there’s just no reason to choose a plastic phone case over a compostable one. Pela has tons of cute colors and patterns to choose from and they offer to repair your phone on their own dime if you happen to drop your phone and break it with a Pela case on it. How crazy is that? Definitely check out Pela next time you’re phone case shopping.
ThriftBooks
For those that love and adore real, paper, physical books, this one is for you.
We already have tons of books in the world and you can help save some of those guys from landfills if you shop secondhand books next time you’re in the market for a new novel. Thriftbooks is awesome. While you can find copies of books that are new or nearly new, you’ll also find many well-loved books here for great prices.
And they have everything: Books that a currently trending on TikTok, classic literature, children’s books, books about how to raise backyard chickens – the works. Shopping for secondhand books is definitely more sustainable than grabbing a brand new book from a website that starts with an ‘A’ and ends with an ‘N’ if you catch my drift.
I’ve gotten multiple large book hauls from Thriftbooks for under $100 and I never have buyer’s remorse shopping there because who could regret getting a bunch of great, cheap books?
Shop on Thriftbooks and get a free book credit when you spend $30 or more.
