Why Are Eco-friendly Sustainable Products So Expensive: 3 Tips
Eco-friendly products are more expensive for a variety of reasons ranging from lack of demand to high manufacturing costs.
A Telegraph article noted that green goods can cost 50% more than regular goods.
In Europe, shoppers ended up spending 2,000 more euros in a year to be eco-friendly.
Being eco-friendly shouldn’t be this costly, but unfortunately for right now, it is. Let’s explore deeper each of the reasons sustainable products can be more expensive and why it’s still worth it to buy them rather than cheaper alternatives.
1. Lack of demand
While green, natural living is continuing to rise in popularity, there aren’t enough people purchasing sustainable products right now.
When a business has low demand for a product, then they have to raise the prices in order to make any kind of profit from it.
But when the demand increases, they’re more able to lower the price to get the profit they need. It’s the law of demand.
Fortunately, there are signs of hope that demand for sustainable products will rise. It’s been found that Gen-Z is more willing to pay higher costs for eco-friendly products.
Additionally, in a survey of a 1000 US consumers, it was found that most Americans were willing to pay up to 5% more for eco-friendly products.
The EPA has expressed that as demand continues to rise for products that cause less environmental and human wellness impact rises, the prices will decrease.
2. High manufacturing costs
It’s not cheap for an organic fashion brand to use organic cotton to make clothes as opposed to regular cotton.
Most companies use a high level of pesticides so that the farmers can grow the cotton in a large quantity.
As a result of more supply, the company can sell the product for less. Since eco-friendly companies don’t use these chemicals, they grow the materials for their products in less mass quantity.
Additionally, they have to hire more workers to do the weeding and cleaning. Another factor that makes manufacturing costs high is the salary of the workers.
Many eco-friendly companies believe in paying the workers they hire a fair living wage. In order to be able to do that, the items need to cost enough to support the pay.
The cost of organic certification is high as well, which is another reason companies may need to keep their prices high to stay afloat.
3. Following green practices
Some eco-friendly companies not only try to sell sustainable items, but they also try themselves to be sustainable as a business.
That means they may choose to avoid using cheaper plastic packaging and follow greener polices such as using renewable energy like solar panels.
Unfortunately, choosing to follow sustainable business practices can be expensive as well, causing eco-friendly companies to price their products higher.
But understandably, if a company is going to be selling products that encourage people to be more sustainable, than it’s important that they do what they can to set the example as a business.
Why you should still buy Eco-friendly products?
Despite the high cost of these products, you can end up saving more in the long run buying them.
Clothing made out of eco-friendly material or light bulbs that are more sustainable usually tend to last longer.
The longer these products last, the less often you have to buy new ones, and of course, the more dollars you get to keep in your wallet.
Beyond saving more, the quality of sustainable products are just simply better.
Consumers have described clothing made of organic cotton as much softer than those made of traditional cotton.
How to decrease cost of Eco-friendly products?
The main thing we can do as consumers besides buying these products is help to spread awareness about these sustainable options.
That means recommending them to our family, friends and neighbors. It means helping to share these eco-friendly products on social media.
Doing these things can help to increase the overall demand for these products and eventually help to lower the prices.
One last thing to remember is not all sustainable products are expensive. Some are in fact sold at a similar or even more affordable price than their traditional counterparts.
You can look at Buzzfeed’s list of eco-friendly products to find some affordable options.
Final thoughts on environmentally-friendly products
Beyond the financial and personal benefits of shopping eco-friendly products, it of course benefits the planet.
We add less waste to our environment helping to make for cleaner air, soil, water, and a cleaner environment overall.
By choosing to support businesses that operate in an environmentally-friendly way, we’re indirectly helping to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
As a result, we’re decreasing the global warming of the planet and making our world a better place for our children and our children’s children.
Even if it’s just one product, we can all do our part to creating a more sustainable planet through eco-friendly shopping. In 2022, let’s make one of our sustainable new year’s resolutions be to buy more eco-friendly products. Have a happy sustainable new year’s eve.
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