10 Ethical & Sustainable Alternatives to Amazon

While online one stop shops are convenient, affordable, and often risk free with free shipping & returns, it’s important to ask the question: are we choosing the right companies to shop from? In the U.S alone, 55% of online shoppers choose Amazon as their first e-commerce option.

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Let’s explore a list of more sustainable shops & some of Amazon’s eco-friendly initiatives.

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A List of Ethical & Eco-friendly Alternatives to Amazon

Shopping online can be challenging for people who actually care about sustainability and ethically produced goods. The following list features online markets that are ethical and sustainable alternatives to Amazon.

While no company is 100% perfect these brands were built with ethical & eco-friendly in their business model from the beginning.

Healthier Homes

Healthier Homes is like Whole Foods for your house. They are a great source of natural, organic, nontoxic home furnishings for healthy and happy living spaces, including sustainable home decor, furniture, and rugs.

Use the discount code HONEST for 10% off your Healthier Homes order!

Public Goods: Organic Pantry Products & Eco-conscious Household Goods

Public Goods offers sustainable, healthy, and everyday essentials. Conscious consumers can purchase eco-friendly household items such as tree free paper towels, bamboo straws, non-toxic cleaners, and much more. 

Public Goods is also a great one-stop-shop for organic groceries, such as canned goods, vitamins and supplements, premium-quality CBD oil, and even goodies for your pets, ranging from food to treats and non-toxic cleaning products.

As you can see, Public Goods offers a wide range of sustainable products. A few other sustainable initiatives from Public Goods includes the white personal care product bottles are made with sugarcane, their paper products are tree-free, and they plant a tree for every new customer to reduce emissions.

Uproot Design Studio Gifts & Accessories

For bright & sustainable goods check out Uproot Design Studio! This is an artist owned small business that sells eco-friendly gift cards, unique gift boxes, organic cotton clothing, and more!

Made Trade: Ethical & Sustainable Furniture, Fashion, & Home Goods

With online marketplaces, like Made Trade, purchasing ethically-sourced home goods and clothing is easier than ever. Made Trade carefully hand-picks the best ethically made and sustainable clothes and home goods.

The best thing about them is that it directly supports small businesses and independent artisans.

Made Trade offers beautiful designs for men, women, babies, kids, and a tastefully curated selection of furniture, kitchenware, home decor accessories, curtains and bedding, clothing, and shoes.

Their collections feature plant-based fibers, organic cotton, recycled materials, and ethical practices.

But that’s not all, they offer free shipping for orders over $75, and give back by donating 1% of each purchase to a grassroots organization. Made Trade is also a certified carbon-neutral company.

Made Trade also has a wedding registry option which is great and allows sustainable brides the chance to register for responsibly sourced products.

Thrive Market: Non-GMO Organic Groceries, Non-Toxic Beauty & Household Goods

Thrive Market is a great one stop shop for healthy foods. Thrive Market has all the healthy brands that Whole Foods has at a fraction of the price! They have a vast selection of organic and non-GMO brands.

Shoppers can even shop by dietary restriction including keto, paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, vegan, organic, & more. Thrive also offer beauty, bath and body products, household supplies and supplements.

Every product Thrive carries is vetted against a list of 550+ chemicals that don't meet their standards for safety and quality.

Along with responsible sourcing, Thrive market is 100% carbon neutral through carbonfund.org, uses packaging made from recycled paper and that is recyclable, and has zero waste warehouses powered by renewable energy. Thrive gives back too. For every annual membership, they sponsor a family in need. 

Earthhero

EarthHero is a one-stop shop for all things eco-friendly! This mindful marketplace carries a wide range of responsible brands and makes sustainable shopping easy with their variety of products.

EarthHero’s sustainable products include kitchenware, toys, pet treats, beauty products, clothing, tech accessories, fitness accessories, office supplies, outdoor gear, and more.

EarthHero is certified carbon-neutral through CarbonFund. Through this partnership, EarthHero works to ensure that shipped products arrive to customers using the least amount of environmental impact as possible. EarthHero is also a member of 1% for the Planet and a certified B Corp.

MINNA’s mindful home goods

MINNA is a tight-knit team of artists, creators, and thinkers based in Hudson, NY. This brand is a queer led business that believes in creating beautiful, ethically made products and using business to do good.

MINNA is a certified B Corporation. This marketplace is a great spot to find artisan made home goods such as rugs, pillows, furniture, bedding, art, and more.

EcoRoots Zero Waste Shop

EcoRoots is an online zero waste shop on a mission to provide conscious consumers with the best eco-friendly and low-waste products out there.

From beauty and health to household products, their eco-friendly lineup is here to help you find sustainable alternatives to everyday essentials!

This online zero waste shop features bath & beauty products, home goods, and more.

I’ve tried some of Ecoroots amazing shampoo and conditioner bars, reusable dish cloths, soaps, and facial toner! The quality of all their sustainable goods is amazing! Their products range in price from $5-$50.

Zero Waste Store

Since launching Zero Waste Store has become a trusted platform for sustainable brands, and a community of individuals making a positive impact on our planet.

Sustainable shoppers will discover a wide range of zero waste products including household goods, clean beauty, oral hygiene, hair care, and more.

All Zero Waste Store products are packed in 100% recyclable paper based or compostable starch-based materials including recycled paper tape, recycled mailer envelopes, dissolvable starch-based packing peanuts, so you can order free from plastic packaging. Their shipping is also carbon neutral.

Etsy: Shop Small & Support Entrepreneurs

Etsy is dedicated to providing small entrepreneurs a safe place to offer their products, ranging from home decor to jewelry and accessories, clothing and shoes, toys, and art.

Today, their marketplace has millions of creative entrepreneurs pouring their passion and energy into their stores.

Etsy supports small business owners, entrepreneurs, and artists who create the most innovative and sustainable products. Etsy also offers 100% carbon offset shipping and powers its operations with renewable energy. 

Package Free Shop: The Zero Waste Amazon Alternative

The Package Free Shop sources products from individuals and brands with a mission to create a positive environmental impact.

This eco-friendly marketplace has a goal to reshape the consumer product landscape, redefine what a truly good product looks like, and make natural and plastic free products more accessible, affordable, and convenient for all.

Ethical shoppers will discover beauty, bathroom products, hair care, kitchen products, non-toxic cleaners, zero waste storage options, zero waste kits, and more.

Is Amazon sustainable?

While Amazon has certain eco-conscious initiatives in place, the reality is their current business model featuring free shipping and free returns encourages overconsumption.

Consumers can’t deny that the one stop shop is convenient, but it’s also important to hold companies accountable for their sustainability promises to avoid greenwashing.

Let’s look at Amazon’s Climate Pledge and explore some other eco-friendly marketplaces.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge

Amazon’s Climate Pledge plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. While the goal of net-zero carbon emissions is a start, as a large e-commerce leader with access to many resources, there is more they could be doing to reduce their environmental impact such as focusing on compostable packaging and limiting returns.

Amazon’s Carbon Emissions

Amazon’s quick shipping methods lead to a lot of vehicles on the road & planes in the air, partnered with the free shipping & return offers, this tends to encourage overconsumption.

As Amazon’s continues to grow this can cause further environmental impact ,for example it’s reported that Amazon’s emissions per dollar of merchandise sales dropped 5%, meaning the company was able to warehouse and deliver packages a bit more efficiently than in the prior year.

While headed in the right direction, that didn’t swing the overall numbers: Its total emissions in 2019 rose 15%, to 51.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Amazon also claims that they will be powering operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. It would be a great step in the right direction if Amazon meets this goal.

Amazon’s Recyclable Packaging

Along with the emissions Amazon’s packaging has quite a bit of room for improvement.

Amazon’s packaging is made up of a mix of materials such as cardboard boxes, plastic film, and more.

While Amazon does have a page on their website telling consumers how to dispose of and recycle the packaging, but the chance of consumers actually taking the time to learn how to responsibly recycle the packaging is slim leading most packaging to end up in landfills.

Depending on where the consumer lives the packaging might not be able to be picked up in curbside recycling.

It’s also estimated that only 4 percent of plastic film accrued by U.S. households is recycled through collection programs at grocery and big-box stores, according to a 2017 Closed Loop report about U.S. recycling.

The other 96 percent becomes garbage, even if put into curbside recycling, and ends up in landfills.

In 2008 Amazon introduced the Frustration-Free Packaging an initiative designed to reduce waste and 100% recyclable packaging and no additional Amazon packaging. However, unfortunately this is only available on select products.

While Amazon has added some other conscious options such as allowing consumers to have items shipped in less boxes, if this e-commerce leader focused more on compostable and biodegradable packaging this would be better for the planet and set the bar higher for other companies.

Amazon’s Free Returns Encourage Overconsumption & Creates Waste

It’s also important to consider the waste generated from returns. Optoro estimates that $400 billion US worth of merchandise is returned to all retailers every year, which generates five billion pounds of waste directed to landfill in the U.S. 

Contrary to what consumers believe, returned merchandise does not always end up back on the shelves.

A recent study from CBC post highlighted Marketplace’s partnership with the Basel Action Network, a non-profit Seattle-based environmental organization that specializes in tracking waste and harmful products around the world.

The trackers became a guide into the secretive world of e-commerce returns. Of the 12 items returned, it appears only four were resold by Amazon to new customers at the time this story was published.

Months on from the investigation, some returns were still in Amazon warehouses or in transit, while a few travelled to some unexpected destinations, including a like new backpack that Amazon sent to landfill.

While the items that end up in landfills obviously create unnecessary waste, it’s also important to consider the emissions emitted when the package travels back and forth for the returns.

Do I Shop with Amazon?

Honestly yes. As much as I wish I could say I’m a dedicated conscious consumer who shops 100% ethically and sustainably, that’s not the reality. And I don’t want to set unrealistic expectations.

I certainly try my best to check the shops listed above or use Wonderful Things. Wonderful Things is a tool that helps Amazon shoppers discover ethical & sustainable products within the platform.

Every decision and every purchase matters, and every single purchase can be a vote for sustainability, so do your best to make your vote count! Sustainability looks different for everyone and that’s okay. Make responsible purchases wherever you can.

For more tips & tricks on sustainable living be sure to follow The Honest Consumer on social media, subscribe to our newsletter, & check out the Ethical & Sustainable Brand Directory.