Where do you currently buy your clothes from? How about your food? Where we shop has a big impact on the world around us.
If you want to better support the earth and invest your money in companies that don’t pollute the atmosphere, mistreat their workers, or use damaging materials, check out some of the best ethical shopping apps below.
Ethical shopping apps for clothes
There are a lot of clothing companies that make and sell unethical clothing. They end up polluting the environment, underpaying workers and wasting water.
Many clothes (particularly ones made with microplastics) are not biodegradable and will stay in landfills for a long time. Alternatively they’ll need to be burned and produce excessive greenhouse gases.
Check out some of these apps that can help you make more informed choices when buying clothes.
Good on You
Good on You rates brands on how sustainable they are, so you can choose to only support ethical companies. The rating system starts at ‘We Avoid’ (one out of five) to ‘Great’ (five out of five).
- Browse through more than 3,000 brands recorded on the app
- Get exclusive offers through the app to save money
- Read through tips, guides, and style edits to identify how to be more sustainable
- Stay updated with the latest fashion trends for inspiration and motivation
- Send messages to brands through the app
- Send requests to Good on You to rate an organisation’s sustainability if it isn’t already on there
Vinted
You can use this app to thrift for new clothes, as well as sell second-hand items and materials. Thrifting is more environmentally-friendly, and encourages others to recycle rather than throw away.
- List an item of your own to thrift - simply take a picture, upload with a price, and submit a short description
- Receive an alert every time another user likes or buys one of your items
- Track your parcel through the app as it’s delivered to a new owner
- Transfer money through the in-app payment system
- Search for an item to buy, using categories like brand, size, and price to filter your results
Depop
Join over 27 million people using Depop to buy and sell clothes they own or have created.
- Set up your own Depop shop by taking photos of the items you want to sell
- Discover unique fashion from creatives wishing to sell their designs
- Connect with others buyers and sellers
- Pay through the app using PayPal
Save Your Wardrobe
Save Your Wardrobe helps you discover how sustainable your current wardrobe is. It’ll inform you about what you’re supporting, as well as help you alter your brands to better suit the ethical lifestyle you’re looking for.
- Scan your wardrobe by taking a photo of your clothes to create a digital folder
- The app will identify the brand, category, colour, and more of your wardrobe
- Sync with the Good on You app to rate your clothes from a scale of one to five depending on sustainability
- Use the app’s curated ecosystem of services to refresh your wardrobe and older pieces: ‘Repairs’, ‘Alteration’, ‘Dry Cleaning’, ‘Rental’, ‘Donation’, and ‘Responsible Shopping’
- Plan your outfits even while away from home using the digital capture of your wardrobe
Ethical shopping apps for food
On average, the UK throws away 9.52 million tonnes of food each year, emitting 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Around one third of the food that bakeries, restaurants, cafes, and factories produce goes to waste!
The following apps are dedicated to reducing food waste and supporting more ethical food shopping. They aim to eliminate the damage food production has on the environment and the animals involved in the industry.
Too Good to Go
Too Good to Go is a takeaway app dedicated to reducing waste by connecting you with restaurants, bakeries, shops, and cafes with excess food nearby.
- Save food by purchasing discounted meals that would otherwise be thrown away
- Search for food establishments near your location
- Place your order to collect the food through the app
- ‘Favourite’ places you enjoy and receive alerts when they have new deals and food ready for collection at the end of their work day
OLIO
Olio reduces food waste by connecting you with neighbours and other people nearby to swap homemade goods and shopping products. Olio has a fantastic network of ‘Food Waste Heroes’, who save surplus supermarket food from going to waste, then list it on the app for free.
- OLIO FREE: Add listings of food you’re happy to give away for free, and collect food you need
- OLIO MADE: Sell homemade food and goods
- OLIO GOALS: Explore more ways to live sustainably and adopt better habits for everyday life
- Message neighbours to arrange the best times to pick up and drop off food
- Make requests for the type of food you’re looking for, and see if anyone has something similar to give away or sell
- Rate, report or block anyone through the app you’ve had a bad interaction with
Certified Humane
This app ensures that the consumer only buys products that are certified by the Humane Farm Animal Care. If animals are important to you, a Certified Humane label on food means the animals were raised fairly and in line with animal care standards.
- Use the app to enter a location to search for a nearby grocery store
- When you select a store, items that are certified humane in that shop will pop up. You can then ensure you only support products that care about animal rights
- You can also search by specific food items and restaurants
Ethical Barcode
You can use this app to scan the barcodes on products in supermarkets to ensure you know the types of companies you’re supporting.
- Scan the barcode on food products and other grocery items
- Discover who manufactured the items so you know where your money is going
- Use ratings to better identify how damaging the products you’re buying could be for the environment, population, and animals
Other ethical shopping apps
TreeClicks
TreeClicks lets you plant trees while shopping! Reduce your carbon footprint by giving back to nature.
- Select one of the 40,000+ shops in the TreeClicks app
- Search for clothes and other items in the app
- A tree is planted using the advertising income
Charitable Bookings
Raise money for charity with every booking you make through the app.
- Choose from 2,500,000 hotels, villas, or apartments and book your destination through the app
- Raise funds for a charity of your choice with each booking you make. The app receives commission and 50% will be given to a selected charity
- Purchase gift vouchers
- Receive Amazon rewards
Discover more
Apps can be incredibly useful for a variety of purposes. Check out some of our recommendations below to help you in other areas of life:
