Buy Nothing Day is a day in which all people are encouraged to buy no goods for 24 hours. This day originated in Canada in 1992 as a means to increase awareness of extreme consumerism and expose the effects of overconsumption. Overconsumption can affect many aspects of our world today. These effects are not always positive. Buy Nothing Day should take place each year as a reminder to the people what overconsumption can cause and what possible environmental dangers lie in it.
Black Friday is traditionally known for being amongst the busiest shopping days of the year. Many consumers leave their homes to go buy as much as they can for as little as they can on this day alone. It is estimated that 74.2 million people were shopping on Black Friday
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Near the holidays, more waste is generated at this time than any other. In his article, Wallander states: “From Thanksgiving to the New Year, we generate 25 percent more waste than average. What do we consume over the holidays? 125,000 tons of plastic packaging. 744 million holiday cards. 8,000 tons of wrapping paper. The wrapping paper alone is the equivalent of approximately 50,000 trees, an indication that holiday waste is nothing to scoff at. With so much of this waste being a by-product of shopping for and sending gifts, let’s look at perhaps the biggest culprit of it all: Black Friday.” Black Friday is responsible for a large part of this waste. The better deals and lower prices of this day attract many buyers to participate in this event. If this is not enough, Black Friday is no longer just Black Friday. It begins on the Thursday before and extends to as far as the weekend. The more products sold calls for more packaging to be needed. These additional days of sales increases the yearly waste even further. Putting an end to Black Friday would lower overconsumption. Terminating extreme shopping days would help lessen the loads of products being bought and the packaging needed for them. The yearly percentage of waste would decrease and help the environment