Why are eco-friendly products more expensive? – Clarify Green

Let’s begin with a simple economics principle. Don’t exit or fall asleep! This will be quick, I promise!

The Law of Demand states: All things being equal, as the price of a good increases, demand decreases; conversely as the price of a good decreases, demand increases. 

This is true for all types of goods and services, including eco-friendly ones. An increase in demand will reduce the price for a product.

The simplest way to increase the demand for a product is to purchase it. Pretty straightforward, right? 

Whether you choose to buy a green product, let’s say a reusable water bottle, from a small Etsy store, or from a line of eco-friendly products from Walmart, your money is supporting an environmentally conscious product and not a harmful one such as disposable plastic water bottles.  

Your purchase will tell the manufacturer (small or large) that you support eco-friendly products and if enough people feel the same way and also purchase green products, they will put more money into increasing production and in turn, you will see a decrease in price, eventually (yes, it is going to take some time).  

As well, as demand increases for eco-friendly products, and decreases for traditional toxic products, the production of eco-friendly products will increase and toxic products will decrease. This will result in the consumer having more choice for green products over non-green products on department store shelves.

To sum up, the more consumers purchase eco-friendly, environmentally conscious products (increasing demand), the more manufacturers will make of these products, subsequently lowering the price for consumers.