Buying products when you’re trying to be sustainable can be confusing when you’re not
sure which products are the best. One of the websites that aims to guide consumers to
better choices is GoodGuide. They state “We believe educated consumers make better
choices and help drive the development of safer, healthier, and more sustainable products”.
They carry ratings on a number of products including products for baby case, makeup, and
personal hygiene.
They rate products on their chemical compositions and chemical regulations in
manufacturing. They use a rating system from 0-10, with 10 being the best product for you
and 0 being a very poorly-rated product. They rate ingredients based on their degree of
health concern, and for if they appear on any lists of ingredients that have a noted negative
effect.
By providing this information they hope to enable consumers to buy products based on
their own health concerns and moral position on sustainability and safe chemicals. For
example, they may assess a product negatively because it contains an ingredient which may
cause a reaction in people who are severely asthmatic. Although this wouldn’t cause a
reaction in most people, it is something which can be taken into account when assessing a
product. They will also not give a product a good rating if it has a very vague product list –
nothing with “fragrance” listed with no further information, for example, will not receive
higher than a 6.
One thing to note is that is does mostly focus on products that may be of medical concern to
consumers, and the ratings aren’t generally to do with environmental sustainability. One
such example is makeup glitter – it receives a solid 10 for the fact that it is not dangerous for
people to use, but it is made of PET plastic which won’t be recycled when it’s used as glitter.
