Buy better this Black Friday with this eco-friendly, green retailer shopping tool

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Eco-minded product options that you don't need to hunt for

Beagle Extension
(Image credit: Beagle)

While Black Friday is great for our pockets, with retailers offering up their wares at discounted prices, it hasn’t always been great for the environment. Encouraging people to buy products that they might not necessarily need, it can lead to premature obsolescence for goods that would otherwise last longer than the expedited upgrade cycle gives them credit for.

So this Black Friday, if you’re looking to be a bit green friendlier with your purchasing power, consider looking into sustainable and recyclable purchases. A new browser extension, Beagle, aims to make any such green-fingered deal hunt much easier by offering sustainable recommendations and alternatives to things you’re looking to buy.

Simply install Beagle, hit its extension button while browsing a retail site for your most wanted item, and it’ll scour its own database of eco-minded retailers to find an alternative merchant or product with superior green credentials.

From plastic-free floss to recyclable Nespresso coffee pods to solar power banks, Beagle uses “a blend of artificial intelligence and language recognition algorithms” to match users with a suitable product alternative.

“It’s fascinating to see which products are proving to be the most popular green and ethical alternatives for shoppers using The Beagle Button,” says Daniel Hemsley, co-founder of the Beagle extension.

“We are widening our options and reach every single day, so it’s great to see such a diverse range of products being chosen regularly by customers after they have been suggested by the button. It just goes to show that whatever you’re looking for, whether it be a sustainable laundry bin, cruelty-free make-up foundation, organic cotton jeans, or even an organic bamboo G-string, there is almost always a green option out there!

“The results of the how consumers are using the button so far have surpassed even our highest hopes. The click-throughs, the conversions, as well as the consumer and brand feedback has been fantastic. It just goes to show that the demand for sustainable shopping really is upon us.”

Within the extension’s settings, users can tweak their preferences based on “their values and what ‘Better’ means to them”, according to the press release. They’ll then be presented with “plastic free products, organic products, vegan and cruelty-free products, longer-lasting products, carbon-neutral products and products from minority owned companies”, depending on the parameters they set. All partner brands and retailers are picked based on five principles – that they aim to reduce emissions, waste and harmful chemicals, and that they aim to protect workers and animals.

If you want to find out more, and do your bit for planet Earth as well as your wishlist this Black Friday, visit https://joinbeagle.com/, and grab the extension here.

More Black Friday deals in the US

More Black Friday deals in the UK

Gerald Lynch
Gerald Lynch

Gerald is Editor-in-Chief of iMore.com. Previously he was the Executive Editor for TechRadar, taking care of the site's home cinema, gaming, smart home, entertainment and audio output. He loves gaming, but don't expect him to play with you unless your console is hooked up to a 4K HDR screen and a 7.1 surround system. Before TechRadar, Gerald was Editor of Gizmodo UK. He is also the author of 'Get Technology: Upgrade Your Future', published by Aurum Press.