Better World Shopper

This week I’ve decided to continue the conscientious and ethical buying and feature Better World Shopper. They are a website that has spent over 5 years collecting information on more than 1,000 companies to help people like us shop in a more ethical way. They give each company a grade that is based on how they perform in five different areas: Human Rights, the Environment, Animal Protection, Community Involvement, and Social Justice. They have studied small companies to large corporations like Target, Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. So if you are someone that is interested in being socially and environmentally proactive this site is great and will most definitely help you achieve not only better shopping but I believe smarter consumerism as well. Happy shopping!

Until next week,

Annie

http://betterworldshopper.com/

Roozt

This week I am taking us back to a cause that will cost a little more but it’s actually at a discounted price! Roozt.com is an organization that promotes socially responsible buying and does so by having deals every two days. It is very much like groupon in that you are taking part in a group thing. Another cool thing is that they now have a cause every month that the purchases made on the website also contribute to. For example the deal going on today is for Harvest, a t-shirt company that plants a tree every time a shirt is bought. Their t-shirts are also made with “organic and recycled material, are sweatshop-free, and come from natural and sustainable fabrics”. The shirts usually sell for $24 but with the deal you get them for $12 and then also shipping (at a reduced price). It is a great site and fun to see that there are people doing research so that people like us can find socially conscious companies and support them. Happy ethical buying!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.roozt.com/index.html

TerraCycle

I apologize for my absence last week but I was on a trip volunteering in Los Angeles with 75 high school students! I’m back though and going to share my new obsession for this week’s entry. TerraCyle. I love recycling and re-using as much as I can but TerraCycle just took recycling to a whole new level. They take unrecyclable materials (chewy bar wrappers, cereal bags, beauty products, cameras, cell phones, writing utensils, etc) and make them into new things. On top of that, for most of their “brigades”, like items being recycled, they will give .02 cents to the charity of your choice or you can instead get points and donate them to projects on their website, like Heifer International. All you have to do is sign up or find somewhere locally that is already collecting materials for TerraCycle. I have found that it is a bit difficult to find people locally so I just signed up myself. I’d be more than happy to collect people’s things, just let me know! So this week when you are unwrapping your toilet paper and going to throw away the plastic wrapping, think again because through TerraCycle those items you are throwing away may be able to be recycled. Happy recycling!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.terracycle.net