Sustainable shoppers are actually creating more trash by replacing perfectly good stuff with new 'green' versions.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
Redundant Sustainable Purchases
SSRN · 6198098
The Takeaway
The researchers found that when people 'follow their hearts' on the environment, they stop comparing a new purchase to what they already own and instead compare it to a 'dirty' conventional product. This mental shift makes buying something new feel more ethical than the truly sustainable act of just reusing what you have.
From the abstract
When consumers pursue a more sustainable lifestyle, they often buy new eco-friendly products, even when they already own a perfectly good version of that product. Ironically, in this case, eco-friendly purchases are not the best choice for the environment, because reusing what one already owns is more sustainable. This research introduces and unpacks the psychology behind these choices, which we call redundant sustainable purchases. Across eight pre-registered studies (N = 4,531), we show that c