Why are we ushering in the era of environment friendly products?

by Nadeem Saifi Copywriter Content Writer

The production and sale of many eco-friendly products are at a nascent stage in many nations. Even though the method and process are getting refined with stricter pollution norms, still they are not able to capture a significant enough market share. This is a cause for concern as we desperately need to shift away from non biodegradable plastics and start making our products overall more eco-friendly. This means incentivizing these industries and using their alternatives to meet our plastic demands.

Buying and discussing environment friendly products can help these industries a lot in boosting their share of clientele. As they are not at the same scale of production as their plastic manufacturing rivals and they have not yet made the kind of inroads that make them household names. It is up to the consumers than to make a conscious choice while going about their shopping needs, to include some of these alternative items in their list and discard the popular plastic brands wherever possible. The kind of boost this gives to the demands will feedback to the manufacturing process, allowing the eco-friendly industry to respond with better items that can easily replace plastics at a competitive price.

Nowadays there are several zero waste cafes that also come into the picture. They have started their business on biodegradable products as they have understood the scenario of the coffee shops which are producing an estimated 250 billion paper cups every year which go straight to landfills. These cups might be recyclable but the process is very expensive and even does not exist in many municipalities. The zero waste cafe movement is gaining traction and the visionary mindset of the people helps them to practice to emulate sustainable natural cycles. By adopting this movement people can keep hundreds or even thousands of pounds of resources from ending up in the trash.

As of now, there are three categories of eco-friendly products based on the raw materials that they are made from. These are biodegradable plastics, compostable goods, and organic-based products.

Biodegradable plastics are sourced from cornstarch, that is processes to make the kind of polymer chains which are biodegradable and can be easily processed. They usually end up as carrying bags and garbage bags, thus able to replace a very vital plastic stronghold with an eco-friendly version.

Compostable goods are those products which at the end of their life can be added to natural composting pits to decay naturally and become a part of the soil. They are essentially harmless and even beneficial to soil and can be disposed of into a well-planned compost pit. As they decay, they add nutrients into the soil and the gas that arises from their breakdown is usually methane which can be pumped back into homes to provide clean-burning fuel for cooking, heating etc.

Lastly, we have organic products that are essentially the by-products of the agriculture industry like wheat stalk, bamboo fibre shoot, gunny and jute etc. They are fibrous and can be sewn and stitched as such into a variety of products. However, they are now also replacing bigger items like coffee mugs and plates, by making them reusable.

Switching to the zero waste products are proven to be more beneficial as compared to other products as they can help reduce the environmental footprints. Only nine per cent of the plastic products can be recycled and the rest of them ended up in the landfills or the waterways. These products are affecting the flora and fauna in the worst possible way. It is the high time that we should start switching to eco-friendly products which help in reducing the waste and decrease the load on the environment.