Conscientious Choices
No matter what you buy, I believe it is important to consider where your shopping comes from and what companies you are supporting in buying their products.
Unless your household cleaner, make-up or shower gel is stamped with the “Leaping Bunny” logo, chances are it would have been unnecessarily experimented on animals. It’s worth noting that pretty much all ingredients, up to a certain point, have unfortunately been tested on animals, even plain old water!
For this reason, companies will have a “cut-off date” to show that they do not use ingredients that have been tested on animals after this date. Some are cheeky and have a rolling date, which is pointless, and others will try and get around it by saying that their ‘final’ product has not been tested on animals, even though the ingredients contained within have been. Generally speaking, the further away the cut-off date, the better.
If a company has signed up to The Humane Cosmetics Standard (HCS) or The Humane Household Products Standard (HHPS), which means meeting stringent criteria and being regularly audited, they’ll carry the logo. Some ‘ethical’ companies however, have not adopted the standards, so if they claim not to experiment on animals, it’s worth asking “why don’t they carry the logo?”. Maybe their sourced ingredients are not as humane as they would have you believe?
Where a product’s ingredients come from is also just as important. Items containing non-organic Palm Oil are likely to be contributing to deforestation in Indonesia, the methods of which are destroying the homes of Orangutans. Making sure that your products come from renewable sources will help in preventing cruelty like this and help in the upkeep of the environment.
Some innocent looking companies may be owned by one of the big brands such as Mars, Unilever or Proctor & Gamble (to name just a few of the biggest players in animal experimentation and testing!). It is a shame when an otherwise Ethical company is bought out by one of these corporate giants, meaning that anything bought from them will inevitably be lining these bigger pockets. If you look closely at TV adverts, you may notice the name of the parent company appear in a minuscule portion of the screen, for a second or two.
It’s important not to forget what happens when we’re finished with our products. It’s good to see more people opting to recycle, but more needs to be done. Folk are still using plastic bags at the supermarket or choosing to buy non-recyclable items just because they’re too lazy it’s “less convenient” to sort something into the proper bin. And although people think paper bags are better then plastic ones, they contribute heavily to yet more deforestation. Buy some re-usable ‘bags for life’.
