Cambridge Dictionary defines eco-friendly products as those “designed to have little or no damaging effect on the environment”. This term can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, including products ranging from those made from natural materials to those designed to be fully recyclable. 

As a country in the European region, Montenegro has access to a wide range of produce, including those considered eco-friendly. The surge in such available produce is fairly recent, but, as demand increases, the market adjusts to meet it. However, after examining products available in my local shops, I found an interesting trend. As it is a small country, the food production sector in Montenegro is relatively limited, so there is a lot of imported produce, both from the Balkan region and the rest of the world. For my research, I decided to test the availability of eco-friendly products from different regions. 

After some observation time, I discovered that, firstly, eco-friendly products are significantly more expensive than their less environmentally conscious produce. Although this finding is quite upsetting, it wasn't exactly unexpected, as eco-friendly production is currently not as developed, and usually requires rare specialized equipment or other cost-increasing factors. 

A different result, however, wasn’t as obvious. I found that, even though the products sold by firms from and outside of the Balkan region are often very similar, the ones produced in north-European countries and the US are more likely to have more environmentally friendly packaging. An example can be a good I regularly buy myself: iced tea. Two similar products available in almost every supermarket in my town are Jana and Fuze Tea. Jana is a Croatian company, and their produce is sold mostly in the Balkan region, while Fuze Tea is currently owned by the Coca Cola company, and is sold worldwide. Jana uses typical PET-1 plastic packaging, which is fully recyclable. However, to find this information, one has to specifically look for it, as the symbols indicating that are quite small and are placed on the back of the bottle. Fuze Tea is also implementing the same plastic for its packaging, but the fact that it’s recyclable is indicated much more clearly. 

Although the same plastic is used in both cases, the second type of bottle is more likely to get recycled, as more customers are made aware of that possibility. I believe that more companies should implement the same strategy, but the burden of sustainability in the industry shouldn’t solely be placed on the customers. Businesses should put more effort into making their production more eco-friendly, as they switch to sustainable production.