From the Forums: Why do "Green" products cost so much?
by Alan Graham, Portland, Oregon 
on 04.21.08
goldwave84 is asking about the eco-economics of why green costs so much green.
From detergent to face cream, the green choice is just so much more expensive. Is it because of cost of these materials are just higher?
A cursory glance around some shopping sites at laundry detergent shows that the green detergent we use, Mrs. Meyers, comes in at $.20 per fluid oz, while another green product, Seventh Generation, comes in at $.14 per fluid ounce. However, All 2X Concentrated Laundry Detergent comes in at roughly $.09 per fluid ounce. Quite a difference for families on a budget with a lot of laundry. For some, this likely makes going green a harder decision to make.
mikebeavis points out that economics of scale and hidden costs have some role to play:
Economies of scale refers to the principle that you can do things cheaper when you're making 100,000 widgets instead of 62 widgets. There are cost-saving things and specialized labor/machines that can really cut down on production costs. Efficiency improves over time with large numbers. Since green isn't yet mainstream, many of those cost-cutting advantages haven't been adopted by the manufacturers.Hidden costs are things that a company doesn't pay for when it makes its product - usually things like pollution, contributions to landfills, etc. These things happen but it's "free" to let them happen, and costs money to keep them from happening. People who manufacture truly green products likely have a social conscience and will capture some of these hidden costs by using non-polluting energy or implementing a system-wide reuse/recycle campaign. It costs money and that is passed on as part of the product's cost.
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My wife and I always try to buy organic or green products. There are a number of ways you can buy green and save some green at the same time. First we buy in bulk and we buy on sale. If you have the storage space it makes more sense to have 3-6 months of cleaning supplies than to keep going out to the store to buy one item when you run out.
Make your own! My grandmother always made her own window cleaner using distilled water and vinegar.
Use less. Even though our laundry detergent recommends a capful, we have a super efficient front loading washer that is able to wash clothes with less soap. We also buy products in concentrated form and simply add water to it to make it go further. Sometimes the more something costs, the more you pay attention to your own usage.
But there is much more going on in the discussion, so pop in and join us.
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I recently bought a couple bottles of that new green cleaner by clorox made from coconut oil and corn based ethanol for $3 each at walmart, I don't consider that higher cost than I would pay for anything else, and I feel safe knowing I can clean anything and not worry about my dog getting sick.
How much of the cost has to do with companies using the green markup knowing that people are willing to spend up to 15% more to buy greener products? I've noticed that unbleached coffee filters cost more than the bleached ones. The process of manufacturing is the same but the company doesn't have to spend millions on bleach which is merely for cosmetic purposes. Yet the unbleached cost more.
Kinda like bottled water, they charge more just because they can.
Annie Leonard explains this VERY well at storyofstuff.com. The word she uses is "externalization." It's companies dumping the cost of manufacturing on everything they can outside of the actual product/consumer cycle. Pollution, as mentioned earlier, but also things like not giving their employees benefits. It ties in well with this discussion. I highly recommend the 20 minutes to watch it.
Another reason green products can be more expensive than "traditional" products is defer costs onto public through the government. Wal-mart is the most well known for this, encouraging its employees on to medicare and welfare so the company doesn't have to pay for it. I most states shopping at wal-mart is more expensive that other stores once the hit into public services is taken into account
What I find a little odd is something like this:
Purex 100% recycled toilet paper, 12 rolls for $9.99 CDN. As compared to Purex, regular 0% recycled for $8.99 CDN for 24 rolls.
I can't imagine that it costs more to use recycled material, except that they might have to use a completely separate line to produce this recycled line.
Another example: 10 pack of biodegradable garbage bags are $8.99 CDN, and 100 pack of regular grabage bags are $6.99.
It's pretty crazy...it's like they *manufacturers* go out of their way to make these "eco" products more money so that people won't buy them and they can say "See, people don't want them!"
It's frustrating...because even though Wal-Mart and other big box stores are carrying these products the target customer base at these stores makes decisions based on their wallet, not their knowledge of environmental reasons.
Cheers,
Hey Joe, did you check the ingredients of that clorox stuff????
Instead of buying pre-made cleaning products, why not just use products like vinegar, borax, club soda and liquid castille soap to clean up?
There's a great book out there by Jill Schott called 'Green Up Your Clean Up' that's worth looking at. I highly recommend it!
Most 'green' things (Wind, Solar, CFL, LED, etc etc etc) are VERY new technologies.
Thus, expensive.
Soapnuts are the best. Cheap, green and good for the skin