Ethical & eco-friendly alternatives to Amazon
Want to know where you can buy all your eco-friendly essentials in the UK, America and Australia without relying on Amazon? Stick around to find out.
This page contains affiliate links to sustainable retailers - all advertising on this site is ethically-screened.
Hands up if you want a future where convenience doesn’t mean using jets for super quick next day delivery.
Yeah, me too.
If you’re fed up with Amazon and their shady antics you’ve come to the right place.
I’m making it easier to find sustainable online stores so you can get all (or at least most) of your ethically made essentials in one go and reduce annoying postage costs.
Great news - I now have an in-depth guide to avoiding Amazon in 2022 with an updated list of shopping alternatives. You can read it here.
Coming up
Why are people avoiding Amazon?
What are sustainable businesses?
Where can you buy books when boycotting Amazon?
Ethical and eco-friendly alternatives to Amazon
1. Why are people avoiding Amazon?
Lots of people are boycotting Amazon because of its damaging environmental impact and the unfair monopoly they have over various industries.
Big companies, like Amazon, have disconnected us from the products we buy, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear. Their supply chains are secretive and complex with no information about who made them or the sustainability of the raw materials.
When a product or a service is cheap for customers, it usually means someone somewhere else is paying the price.
Financially supporting big corporations that are responsible for numerous human rights violations and the destruction of the environment allows them to keep going.
Amazon’s dominance over the market allows it to control prices and it drives small companies out of business.
While it is no secret that Amazon avoids paying taxes, it has recently been announced that Amazon has now avoided paying £75 billion (or $100 billion USD) in taxes in the last 10 years.
Amazon is a drain on society - the time has come to invest in local communities instead.
2. What are sustainable businesses?
The retailers in this post are conscious of their impact on the environment. They care about the people in their supply chain and source their ingredients responsibly.
Many of them focus on reusable or natural products, are B corporations, or donate part of their profits to charity.
Look for sustainable credentials, like Fairtrade which ensures a fair wage was given to workers overseas where companies like Amazon take advantage.
When buying clothes or textiles, look for GOTS certification as this ensures strict environmental criteria were followed. For example, fewer and safer pesticides, minimal water waste, and renewable energy.
If you’re trying to shop ethically you might also like my Guide To Sustainable Underwear or 50 Eco-Friendly Christmas Gift Ideas In The UK.
3. Where can you buy books when boycotting amazon?
Amazon is the world’s largest bookseller so finding an alternative can feel tricky.
Book publishing in the UK alone uses an estimated 15 million trees worth of paper a year so choosing an alternative seller that is actively working to reduce its environmental impact is also important.
Many booksellers don’t even have an environmental policy nor do they report the impact of their supply chain.
Amazon is the world’s largest bookseller and owns the following brands:
❌Audible
❌Kindle
❌Book Depository
❌Abebooks
Buying from Amazon’s companies helps Amazon maintain a monopoly over the book market. One alternative is to support your local independent bookshop (and I don’t mean Waterstones or WHSmith); this ensures the author gets paid fairly and keeps the high street alive.
Libraries are a sustainable choice too. Not only can you borrow books in all different mediums, the authors still get paid.
If you want to gift a book to somebody and would like to avoid deforestation then you can buy second-hand books from a variety of places.
Here are the most some stores that sell preloved books:
preloved booksellers (That Aren’t owned by amazon):
UK:
eBay - change the condition to ‘used’
US:
eBay - change the condition to ‘used’
Ebooks:
New books:
UK:
Ethical Superstore (environment, social justice)
Kidly (kids)
YesBebe (kids)
US:
Biblio - sell new and used books
Better World Books - sells used and new books
Thriftbooks sell new and used books
4. Ethical & eco-friendly alternatives to Amazon
The retailers in this section sell a large variety of different products and are ideal if you want to buy all your consumables in one place to reduce postage costs.
I have focused on sustainable businesses in the United Kingdom, America, and Australia as that is where the majority of my readers are located.
Zero Waste Outlet
Location - US
Shipping - the US only
Link to the online store
About: A family-owned business in Idaho selling affordable and practical sustainable products. As their name suggests, they use minimal packaging in order to help customers reduce their plastic waste.
Quicklinks:
Ethical Superstore
Location - UK
Shipping - the UK only
About: Ethical Superstore sells thousands of products that can be filtered by ethics or green certification, for example, vegan, Fairtrade or organic. They are a great alternative to Amazon because you can get all your consumables in one place.
Quicklinks:
Biome
Location - Australia
Shipping - International
About: Biome is an Australian B corporation that sells a huge range of eco-friendly products made by small, ethical businesses. They are conscious of greenwashing so you won’t find petrochemicals or hidden palm oil in any of their products (still a problem in the plastic-free industry).
Quicklinks:
Location: Canada
Shipping: Canada and the U.S.A
About: Zero Waste MVMT is a small American business selling plastic-free products that have sustainable ingredients and reduce waste. They do this by creating their own products using responsible manufacturing methods and minimal packaging.
Quicklinks:
Bower Collective
Location: UK
Shipping: the UK only
Discount:
10% off full-price items with code: AFF10
15% off your first order when you sign up - no code required
About: Bower is an online refill store and B Corporation helps you reduce single-use plastic waste by delivering reusable (non-food) products and refills to your door. Bower wants to make a sustainable lifestyle as convenient as possible so you have the choice between a one-off purchase or a subscription service.
Most of their products are plastic-free but their liquid refills come in reusable plastic sachets that can be returned for free (along with any other bits of plastic, like lids). Bower then sterilises the empty sachets and reuses them again and again. They worked out that lightweight plastic had the smallest carbon footprint.
Quicklinks:
Nourished Life
Location: Australia
Shipping: international
About: Nourished Life’s mission is to make clean living as simple and accessible as possible. They offer a wide range of natural skincare, toiletries and beauty products.
EarthHero
Location - US
Shipping - the US only
Link to their online store
Discount:
10% off with SUSTAINABLYLAZY
About: EarthHero is another great alternative to Amazon because you can get all your zero-waste essentials in one place. Not only are they a certified B Corporation and a member of 1% for the planet, but they also offset all their shipping and daily activities with reforestation projects (you can see in-depth sustainability information by clicking the links at the bottom of the page). EarthHero is conscious of the brands they stock, ensuring ingredients are responsibly sourced.
Quicklinks:
Veo.World
Location: The UK
Shipping: The UK and EU
About: Veo is an award-winning sustainable lifestyle shopping platform. They stock over 350 independent brands so you can find unique, ethically made products in one place. They are a certified B Corporation and all their products are vegan-friendly. It’s an ideal shop for buying thoughtful gifts.
Quicklinks:
Ecoroots
Ecoroots
Location: U.S.A
Shipping: International
About: Founded in 2009 by a nature-loving couple, Ecoroots mission is to offer eco-friendly alternatives to everyday products. EcoRoots products are cruelty-free and they are a proud member of 1% for the Planet donating part of its profit to ocean conservation.
Wearth London - Closed
Location: UK
Shipping: the UK (contact for EU delivery)
About: Wearth is an ethical marketplace that sells a huge range of unique products handmade by small businesses in the UK.
Their collection of stylish sustainable products for the home is growing but 80% of their products are still made in the UK. Founded by two people in their twenties, Wearth has a modern, contemporary vibe. If you want a stylish zero-waste home, or a bathroom full of natural, vegan products then you will adore Wearth. As it's a marketplace, deliveries sometimes come directly from the seller.
Grove Collaborative
Location: US
Shipping: contiguous US only
About: Grove Collaborative delivers sustainable home essentials, including household cleaning, personal care, children, and pet products. The site has a subscription delivery option that sends you your supplies at the same time every month, or at another frequency of your choice. Grove specialises in non-toxic, ethically-made, cruelty-free products.
Planet Organic
Location: UK
Shipping: the UK only
About: Planet Organic is a British supermarket chain that is certified by the Soil Association (they now sell some food that isn’t certified organic). They sell a huge range of vegan and organic food (which includes meat) alongside personal care and eco-living.
Quicklinks:
Zero Waste Store
Location: U.S.A
Shipping: U.S.A and Canada (contact for international shipping)
About: Zero Waste Store’s mission is to be your Mission is to be the most trusted source for sustainable brands and products for the everyday person. At Zero Waste Store, you can shop for all your reusable swaps in confidence, knowing that your purchase–and the package it comes in–will arrive at your doorstep plastic-free.
Oxfam Online Store
Location: UK
Shipping: the UK only
About: Shop in Oxfam’s online store and help fight global poverty at the same time. Part of their shop is preloved and some products are ethically sourced and Fairtrade. As this is an online charity shop, you have access to thousands more products than you would on the high street making it easier to shop secondhand.
Quicklinks:
Life Without Plastic
Location: Canada (with an EU branch)
Shipping: the US, CA and EU
About: Life Without Plastic sells a range of zero-waste products for the home and quarterly subscription boxes. These boxes (which are also available as a one-off too) are ideal for anyone that is new to a sustainable lifestyle or hasn’t yet tried enough eco-friendly brands to know what they like yet.
Quicklinks:
GreenBay - Vegan supermarket
Location: The UK
Shipping:
About: Located in South London, Greenbay is the first brick-and-mortar vegan supermarket in the UK. Its mission is to create “a new normal” for vegan grocery shopping both in-person and online.
Quicklinks:
A complete list of ethical alternatives to Amazon by location
Amazon alternatives in the UK:
Amazon alternatives in Australia:
Zero Co
Amazon alternatives in America and Canada:Ten Thousand Villages
Amazon alternatives in Europe
READ NEXT: Why are workers and consumers boycotting Amazon?
READ NEXT: 50+ Ethical gift ideas for a conscious Christmas
I hope you found somewhere to shop. If you found this useful then I’d love it if you gave it a share.
Sophie xx