If you keep buying the same amount of food and clothing, sustainable products cost more than normal products. But use them wisely and you can actually save money. In general, yes, sustainable products are more expensive than conventional versions. There are several reasons for this and almost all of them are logical and understandable.
These include lack of demand, quality raw materials, or fair and equitable business practices. Of course, there are other factors at play, including a degree of self-sabotage. There is some truth in this, although it is not universal. On a very general level, it's fair to say that sustainable products tend to be more expensive.
However, this must be understood in the context of other factors, such as the lifespan of the products. If we return to our basic human needs, sustainability is actually quite cheap. Our planet gives us much of what we need: materials to build houses, food grown from plants, fresh water from mighty streams. For social connection, we have each other.
And the planet even offers some of our most modern conveniences, such as renewable energy for electricity. Some people may justify the cost by understanding why those products are so expensive, but for many of us, the additional cost only means that they could opt for the cheaper, less sustainable option. However, my 8-pound shower gel seemed almost predatory to me and left me wondering how many people have left stores without waste, sustainable stores or beauty counters, and have fallen back into the arms of cheaper brands and products depending on price. After doing the analysis and calculations, I discovered that a sustainable lifestyle like the one shown on Instagram is more expensive (+) than a normal lifestyle, while a “truly sustainable” lifestyle is much cheaper (-1).
