Environmentally Friendly Apps To Check Out This World Internet Day
Rather than indulging another online shopping craving, could you use your internet access to do some good?
But it also means that our online shopping habits have skyrocketed. Since March 2020, the total amount of online shopping activity by the Australian public has risen by 65.5%. Lockdown loneliness makes it all too easy to click add to cart on that cheap new shirt or cute shoes, without thinking too hard about very real consequences of fast fashion and the impact our online decisions can have on the environment.
That’s why we’re challenging you to Step Up and, rather than indulging another online shopping craving, use your internet access to do some good!
We’ve even done all the hard work for you and rounded up the top environmentally friendly apps currently on the market to help you make a difference this World Internet Day and lead a more sustainable lifestyle. By supporting the apps below, you’ll also be making a statement that encourages other organisations to Step Up and incorporate more eco-friendly practises into their own businesses.
Not only have material online sales risen, but there have also been reports of Australians’ “panic-buying” food supplies to prepare for the event of a lockdown - only for that food to ultimately go to waste, with a lot then ending up in landfill. The United Nations estimates that the volume of global food waste comes in around 1.6 billion tonnes. In Australia alone, Food Innovation Australia Limited reported that each year, Australians waste approximately 312kg per person. That’s the same weight as 5 newborn giraffes!
Thankfully, NoWaste app offers a solution to track your food inventory, monitor all upcoming expiry dates, and reduce your food waste. Once you’ve done your food shopping, add the items you bought from NoWaste’s extensive database or quickly scan the barcode. You can receive monthly updates on the savings you’ve made, plan out your upcoming meals, and share your account with friends and family so you can all work together to reduce household wastage.
Even the most diligent monitoring of your food inventory will usually result in leftover kitchen organics such as vegetable peels, fruit cores, tea bags and used coffee grounds. Wouldn't it be great if you could turn all that stuff into new soil rather than adding yet another pile to landfill? That's the idea behind ShareWaste, which uses digital mapping to connect people who wish to recycle their leftover food scraps and other organics with their neighbours who are already composting, worm-farming or keeping farm animals. Which means you can divert organic material from landfill while getting to know the people around you!
If you struggle to start the day without a morning coffee, you’re not alone. The developers of GreenCaffeen know that most Australians need our caffeine fix, but don’t want to contribute to the overwhelming amount of single-use cups that are thrown out every day. While your cafe coffee cup may look like it's made of paper, the plastics used within these cups means it can actually take up to 30 years to for them to properly break down.
GreenCaffeen lets users look up their closest participating cafe and then simply scan the app on arrival to receive their coffee order in a reusable cup. You can even return your GreenCaffeen coffee cup to a different cafe if you’re on the move, as long as they’re part of GreenCaffeen’s network. There are over 710 participating cafes Australia-wide, meaning you never need to worry about remembering to bring your own resuable cup again.
Sometimes we can all be a bit guilty of “wish-cycling”. We want to do the right thing, but become so overwhelmed by all the different sources of information out there that we can actually end up doing more harm than good. RecycleMate is an amazing new initiative by the Australian Council of Recycling to educate Aussies and clear up any confusion once and for all on the correct way to recycle.
All users need to do is take a quick photo of the item in question or search within RecycleMate’s ever-growing database and they’ll be notified instantly on the best place for recycling or disposal. RecycleMate updates in real time and the information entered is user generated, so the more people that download and use the app, the more intelligent its database will become.
At the moment, it’s only available to lucky Brisbane residents but is well on track to be rolled out Australia-wide by the end of 2021.
Much like RecycleMate, the creators of eevie recognise that sometimes it’s hard to know where exactly to start to reduce your carbon footprint. eevie is an eco-habit tracker that gives users real-time feedback on what the most sustainable choice to make is, leading to lifelong environmentally-friendly habits being formed. From calculating your on-foot travel time to eating less meat to saving water, eevie provides constant updates on how your small daily decisions can make a real difference to the environment.
It’s even easier to make a change when you’re doing it as part of a team, so inspire your colleagues to Step Up and download eevie together as part of their social corporate responsibility Impact Partners program.
If you need to report dumped rubbish or litter, the Snap Send Solve app allows you to make a report in 30 seconds or less. It's the easy and efficient way to notify local councils, utilities or other authorities of issues that need addressing in your community. Free from the App Store and Google Play, it eliminates the complexity of knowing where and how to report incidents on the spot. Simply snap a photo of the problem, send a report using the app and the issue is sent directly to the appropriate authority to be solved.
Lastly, if you absolutely can’t go without online shopping this World Internet Day, then there’s still an app out there to ensure you’re always making the most sustainable choice possible.
GoodOnYou is a pretty well-known and established app already - and for good reason. With over 3000+ brands available to search from, GoodOnYou provides users with an ethical rating for any purchase, taking into consideration the brand’s cruelty free status, their waste management and carbon emissions, and the safety of their workers.
You can also use the app to send brands either a note of thanks for their work or an encouraging reminder to adopt more sustainable practices.
Cait is a Perth-based content creator with a passion for writing about the arts, LGBTQIA+ issues, and the not-for-profit sector.
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