#1Thing: 8 Smartphone Apps For The Eco-Friendly

By Lori Melton

From ordering takeout food to monitoring your house while you’re on vacation and paying bills, there’s pretty much an app for everything.

With today’s heightened awareness of the harsh impact of climate change, pollution, deforestation, and other mounting environmental issues, there are also lots of smartphone apps that help support sustainability. Check out eight handy and helpful eco-friendly options below.

GoodGuide

This app received rave reviews from The New York Times, USA Today, TreeHugger, and more. Open the app while shopping, take a picture of a product’s barcode and get green info about it instantly. Are you looking for eco-friendly toothpaste? Or, wondering what kinds of toxins might be in certain items? GoodGuide gives you immediate info on thousands of products.

Download the app oniOS andAndroid platforms, and search thousands of products online.

iRecycle

Recycling is one of the easiest ways to help protect the planet. The popular eco-friendly siteEarth911 created the iRecycle mobile app. Users get instant on-the-go access to over 800,000 recycling and disposal resources for more than 240 materials via the app. Users can also read a plethora of news and informational articles on recycling and other sustainability topics.

iRecycle is available foriOS andAndroid devices.

greenMeter

According to theEPA, transportation is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The greenMeter app allows drivers to track fuel efficiency and consumption. It also makes recommendations to lower your environmental impact in real-time while driving and provides immediate feedback. It’s available for iPhones and iPads at a small cost.

Oroeco

This amazing app helps you track daily living choices and actions you can take to help protect the planet. This eco-friendly tool instantly tracks the carbon value of the food you eat, the products you buy, the transportation you use as well as your home energy use. It’s giving you sustainability information on-the-go at your fingertips.

Available for IOS and Android devices.

RecycleNation

RecycleNation helps app users find the closest recycle locations to them. Just choose from a list of over thirteen recyclable materials and then get directions, learn hours of operation, recycling tips and facts and more. The app also allows users to track their individual recycling process along the way.

Available on the IOS platform.

EWG’s Food Scores

Track important information about the foods you eat with EWG’s Food Scores. Overall, the app promotes making greener and cleaner daily food choices. It rates grocery items according to nutritional concerns, ingredient concerns, and processing concerns. Some notable issues the app identifies include harmful pesticides, hormones, and other dangerous food additives. It also tracks food processing involved in different products, which has a direct impact on the environment.

Available on App Store and Google Play.

MyEarth

Easily track your energy usage and carbon footprint in five categories with this fun app: Electricity, energy usage, food, recycling, and travel. The application features a cute polar bear that’s sitting on a shrinking iceberg. As you make better sustainable choices, the iceberg grows, and the bear is visibly happier. At the end of the week, find out how you fared on water usage, electricity usage, carbon impact on travel and more.

Download for iOS and Android platforms.

Light Bulb Finder

The Energy Star program is run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and created its own Light Bulb Finder helps users find energy-efficient lightbulbs in the nearest location. It also highlights local energy-saving programs. Saving energy in every way possible is a vital part of promoting sustainability and protect the planet for future generations.

Compatible on IOs and Android devices.