
Show HN: Find Eco-friendly alternatives to Products You Use Everyday - boudra
https://ecoalternatives.to/
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Cynddl
I also see you use this website to promote Amazon products, with an Amazon
Associate tag. First, your website does not comply with Amazon Associate rules
(see the point "5\. Identifying Yourself as an Associate"). Second, it may
seem like this website, aiming to offer eco-friendly solutions, only try to
sell more to people. A poor mix of eco-friendliness and consumerism in this
case.

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drankula3
Re your second case: When economic incentives line up with environmental
goals, progress is made. OP should have been transparent, but if someone makes
a profit while improving other people's eco-footprints, it's a win-win.

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bluntfang
Replacing disposable plates with slightly more "eco friendly" disposable
plates isn't really improving anyone's eco-footprint. It's reinforcing the
idea that disposable anything is eco-friendly.

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CaramelSauce
Good is not the enemy of perfect. There are cases where disposable plates are
more or less required. Food trucks/carts for example. One I frequent recently
moved to using compostable plates.

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dkdbejwi383
The eco solution would be to use actual plates that customers return, and are
then washed and reused.

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Cynddl
Eco-friendly alternatives to plates are "Compostable Plates", followed by
"Bamboo Plates"? This makes little sense. What about reusing plates, second
hand market, or donations?

The sustainability and "eco-friendliness" of products is a complex question,
and there is often no such thing as a simple list. See for instance the
extensive study by DTU on plastic vs. paper vs. cotton bags:
[https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...](https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf)
The study shows, e.g., that paper bags need to be used at least 50 times to
achieve the same ecological impact as the thin plastic bags (LDPE).

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avip
This seems a user-contributed, user-voted site. So blame the users I guess.
The most eco-friendly plate is a Banana leaf widely used in East Asia. Second
is clay.

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Cynddl
I didn't see any option to contribute to the website. Did I miss something?

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V-2
It reminds me of the old, tongue-in-cheek piece by Joel Spolsky
[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/whattimeisit/](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/whattimeisit/)

The described use scenario was as follows:

 _"...visitors are very upset if Mike has previously promised to meet with
them at a certain time, but when that time comes around, Mike is nowhere to be
found. This happens because Mike doesn’t know what time it is. At his
secretary’s recommendation, Mike signs up for a WhatTimeIsIt.com account. Now,
whenever Mike is wondering about the time, he simply logs onto
WhatTimeIsIt.com, enters his username and password, and finds out the current
time."_

Years have passed and now, if Mike can't think of an eco-friendly alternative
to a paper coffee cup, he can go to the ecoalternatives website to find out he
could get a stainless steel coffee mug with autoseal and thermalock instead.
Eureka! ;)

(I'm honestly not sure if that's really the equivalent of a paper cup -
personally I'd think a regular ceramic cup, 10 times cheaper, would be more
accurate in reproducing the same functionality, but let's assume Mike is
capable of figuring this one out without a website).

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adrianN
But chances are you already have a ceramic cup, so that suggestion wouldn't
generate any sales.

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rhn_mk1
It would be useful if the alternatives had an explanation on how they are more
eco-friendly. As it is now, it's a starting point for research, without any
guarantees.

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mc32
One of the things listed is ice trays. I was unaware ice trays were a problem
big enough to deserve alternatives? Food packaging is probably a bigger issue
(disposable lunch containers could be replaced with glass or steel).

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wink
> Steel ice trays are a more sustainable option than the typical plastic ice
> trays.

Citation needed. I've never seen anyone not using their plastic ice trays for
a decade. Sometimes more like 3 decades.

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Cthulhu_
Some plastic ice trays can be pretty crappy though. Source: mine broke. I've
got a silicon one now, not sure if it'll last longer though.

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rypskar
Steel, even stainless steel, can rust. So they don't have to last longer, it
also depends on the quality

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Dumblydorr
Should probably include how many plastic cups need to be avoided to payback
investment into metal cup. Metal has a lot more energy poured into its
construction and molding, plastic for its all longevity as trash is at least
cheap to make. Without this contrast, hard for readers to analyze payback
period.

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skilled
No about page, no privacy page, no additional pages...

Yet somehow Google Analytics made its way into the source code...........

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IdontRememberIt
Really? An alternative made in China with cheap plastic? These green washers
are everywhere.

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Fnoord
Can recommend to add reusable diapers. If you buy gender neutral and get 2
children, you will save money on it guaranteed making it win-win for
environment.

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nicolaslem
Congratulations on shipping something meant to do good for the planet!

I think you should add more context to each item. I'd like to see specifically
why an item is bad and how the replacement is better.

The toothbrush is a good start but it would be more impactful if credible
studies were linked. I have a hard time imagining that my toothbrushes end up
in the sea.

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ywecur
Are paper actually better than plastic if the plastic ones are disposed of
properly?

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Tepix
There's no alternative for toothpaste and no way to suggest one.

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croisillon
well, miswak replaces toothbrush AND toothpaste

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weavie
Miscellaneous is mispelled, it's missing an l.

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dusted
There are some stupid ideas on there..

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wilgertvelinga
Great job! I have two suggestions:

New category: deodorant, [https://nuudcare.com/](https://nuudcare.com/)

New "product": shampoo,
[https://www.nopoomethod.com/](https://www.nopoomethod.com/)

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bluntfang
why is this a great job? Can you elaborate? Are you a bot for this amazon
affiliate website?

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wilgertvelinga
No. I'm not a bot. Very real person who is enthusiastic about the mentioned
product and use of no shampoo at all.

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astura
It's literally just a list of referral links for greenwashed consumer
products. Even if you're enthusiastic about "the mentioned product" (whatever
one that is) doesn't mean such a low effort blatant spam site deserves a
"great job," much less a "good job."

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yakshaving_jgt
I'm relatively (I think?) well-informed on feminine products for a guy, but I
didn't know menstrual cups were a thing. Women deal with more discomfort than
we give them credit for.

Some of the items I'm confused about — are plastic ice trays so bad for the
environment? I thought the "bad" plastic products were bad because they're
typically not reusable (bags, straws, etc). Ice trays aren't single use.

In any case, great website!

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RealDinosaur
Don't try to use logic against hardcore environmentalists. Plastic == bad.

This is a bad website to be honest, as ordering consumables off Amazon least
environmentally friendly ways to distribute them. Far better to ship via
pallet to a local supermarket.

Or... Eliminate the need entirely. We need to change our entire way of
thinking from 'buy and throw away', to 'invest and re-use'.

I had an environmentalist complain about a leather guitar strap I've had for
10 years, and that I should throw it away and get one made from an eco-
material, such as recycled denim.

The leather guitar strap was ...

* More durable than any other guitars strap I've ever had

* A by-product of the huge meat industry (I'm a veggie myself)

* In my possession and functional

A lot of the buzz around small changes to help the environment, but the real
change needs to happen to the consumer lifestyle we all seem to have. There is
no quick fix.

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yakshaving_jgt
Sadly, I think you're right. The Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode on recycling
showed some pretty good examples.

I'm an environmentalist, but only with a little e.

