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I have been slowly starting to make a switch towards purchasing from sustainable and ethical companies or sites, and i’m sure you all have plenty of recommendations.
I am looking for companies or sites that carry things such as: clothes, books, home items, self care, gifts, garden supplies, seeds, etc!!! Honestly, anything you believe is worth supporting.
If you could attach a reason why to support a company or site, that would be awesome.
Ex: Moon Valley Organics - they have great self care products, with natural ingredients, and proceeds go towards building pollinator habitats.
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Come check it out with me - I've improved my all-in-one eco-friendly shopping website🤣
I know this may not be the guide to the best 4 online stores or companies for each of your categories but local and second hand will always be the most sustainable options and without your country due to shipping restrictions and sustainability it unwise to advice you on possible cross continental shipping stores.
Depedending on your Standards at least some of those can be aquired locally and or second hand and are the most sustainable option especially if you live in a bigger city, before looking at any specific companies. If you only would like to Shops online that still applies.
I know it is the most boring but also mostly true Statement for sustainability: reduce, reuse, recycle in THAT order so please think if you actually have to puchase something new AND have it shipped to you individually.
Clothes -->local Shops will always be the most sustainable Option as you can Check Material and Fit and the reduced price will also often allow you to have it tailored if its not complicated structured garment. If possible check for natural fabrics and check out a few online ressources to understand proper made clothes (ex how a proper hem/ seam looks like). Also online Shops like vinted come to mind, where you can often procure relatively cheap clothes depending on your countries shipping Cost.
Something often overlooked at the beginning is shoes: I would like to suggest natural fabrics if possible. This includes leather (even though it is not vegan, it is byproduct and in my argument that it is the more sustainable option in comparison to fake leather in production, longlivety and "biodegrability"). Also look for a cobbler nearby if possible to resole your shoes, if possible.
Books: your closest library will be your biggest friend and a nice conversation with the librarian can help you, if you suggest books you are interested in. Especially if you like to read digitally there are nowadays often options for ebooks in libraries. Depending on the specific library, more and more also often have a libary of things if you need some tools for just a few days.
Second hand books are the obvious next choice and you can have standards at your own discretion. There are several big online stores, but that will depend on your location. In general the local equivalent of Facebook marketplace or craigslist often work if its not a very recent book and you can always make your own posts saying that your looking for x item. Fleamarkets and the like are also often helpful to me.
The last three resources also go for home decor, equipment and the like.
For gifts it will depend on the Kind of gift, your and the giftees standards as well as price. There are some example where second hand could also be applicable eg: in my boardgame group we mostly gift each other used board games in a good qualitaty because of sustainiblity and price reasons. Especially because of more and more use of plastics in games rather than wood and paper like 30 years ago as well as the fact that games are often produced overseas so I dont want to order internationally. If they like houseplants I would also like to suggest trying to acquire a matured cutting ( in the sense of a reasonably big plant as opposed to just 2 leaf baby plants) by looking at marketplaces near you. With a few exceptions all my plants are homegrown from small cuttings of other Hobbyists in my City, because their own plants got to big and I dont want to contribute to the Import of plants.
Otherwise it will also always heavily depend choosing a gift that in itself is einher sustainable or even more important that it is actually appreciated. Eg even the most sustainable gift is a waste of resources if it is forgotten in a corner or ends up in a landfill/ compost bin because of the resources that went into its production.
Seeds:
For garden supplies: there is no need to buy anything new because the tools will degradiert over time any way. Rent Form local gardeners, or library of things, share with neighbours or buy second hand (locally). Maybe even look into your local community gardens or allotment gardens because they often lend or rent the tools you dont need everyday.
If you are into gardending you could also look into conposting if you have the space and time.
Check if you have zero waste dry good options at stores or specific stores or look for national online stores. In germany for example there is www.kornkiste.de and they will send you your dry goods in cotton bags or other reusable option depending on the product that you then send back with their deposit based packaging, so the only waste created may ne the massive bulk Orders the have (eg they order a 50 kg bag of noodles in plastic instead of 100 little plastic bags of 500g prepackaged noodles, but they also procure bulk products in resusable or degrable packaging if possible.