Four ways to keep online purchases green

As worries over the climate crisis worsen, many are changing their shopping habits to help save the planet… but how do you keep your online purchases eco-friendly?

Whether it’s buy one get one free on household essentials or half off that new TV you’ve been eyeing up…nobody can resist a good deal.

But at a time when our planet seems on the brink of catastrophe…many are looking to make a different kind of saving.

From avoiding products wrapped in plastic to steering clear of fast fashion, climate conscious shoppers across the globe are stepping up to protect the environment and change the way they splurge.

However, while it can be easy to make that eco-friendly switch when visiting brick-and-mortar stores, it seems far more difficult to stay sustainable when browsing the virtual marketplace.

Figuring out where to buy online is already a challenge, with a host of unsavoury sellers and nightmarish automated customer services giving shoppers unnecessary grief.

And when you add the carbon footprint of your order and the mountains of wasteful packaging used for seemingly every product, knowing where to spend your cash only gets tougher.

So, to alleviate some of the stress and help you make guilt-free online purchases, we’ve highlighted just a few tips for staying green from behind the screen.

Bulk your orders

Rather than buying a number of individual products from an online store, or making the same purchase once a month, it may be wise to group together your orders instead.

Not only does this reduce the fuel needed to transport your items, but can also minimise the amount of waste packaging used in some cases as well.

It may even be worth reaching out to the seller directly and asking if they can ship all of your products in the same box or bag just to be sure.

Avoid returning items

In the age of free returns and trials, it can be easy to get caught in a cycle of ordering products ‘just to try them’.

But every ill-fitting pair of jeans and ‘wear-for-one-night’ dress that you send back is only causing more harm to the planet.

And with five billion pounds of online shopping returns reportedly ending up as waste every year, it’s fair to say it’s a practice best avoided where possible.

Sniff out sustainable alternatives

One of the easiest ways to make your digital shopping sprees more eco-friendly, is by ordering from green sellers.

However, it’s not always easy to find an environmentally friendly alternative to what you’re looking for…and not all of us have time to do the research.

Luckily, there are handy browser extensions like Beagle Button that help people find more sustainable versions of their favourite products.

Not to mention socially conscious search engines that pledge to do everything from plant trees to clean the ocean when people use them.

Make it local

We’ve all heard that one guy who brags about ‘only buying fresh produce from the local market’…well he may be onto something.

If you try to limit your online purchases to local or even national sellers, you can massively reduce the footprint of your order.

Instead of being loaded onto a plane and flown overseas, your product may not even touch the inside of a delivery van before making it to your door.

You can do this by simply adjusting the search radius when you’re browsing for new buys or checking out dedicated webpages for nearby sellers.