Make This Black Friday Green
/Black Friday is just a couple days away and with it often comes a massive amount of packaging waste, impulse buying, and emissions. This Friday, let’s turn Black Friday into Green Friday. Green Friday is a movement to turn the day from one where we are all consuming as much as possible to one where we think about the impact of our purchases and choices. Green Friday doesn’t mean you don’t take advantage of the deals that happen on Black Friday, just that you purchase responsibly. There are a few steps we can take this year to help us remember our environmental impact as we shop.
If you are heading out to shop in person either before or after Thanksgiving, make sure to bring some reusable options to pack up your goods.
The first thing you need to do is be prepared for some heavy marketing. You are probably already getting emails and ads about Black Friday sales and these will only ramp up as we head to the weekend. To combat the marketing and keep yourself from being swayed by pretty graphics or flash sales make a list of all of the things you actually need and make sure you stick to that list. The list might include some things for you and a list of Christmas gifts you are planning to get for others. The earlier you can write this list, the better because it will help to revisit it later to determine whether the items you have listed are needs rather than wants.
Buying second-hand can be beneficial both for your wallet and the environment. Second-hand shopping helps us reduce waste and emissions while saving the resources, water, and energy that it takes to create products. Black Friday can be a great time to buy second-hand because many vintage and thrift stores are doing sales as well as the traditional stores. Online thrift stores like ThredUp and Swap.com are even having Black Friday sales if you don’t want to leave home.
You can also buy new but focus on buying from ethical and sustainable companies to have a better impact. Madewell, known for selling clothing made of recycled cotton, Superzero, which makes shampoo bars that are zero-waste, and many eco-friendly beauty brands are having sales this week.
Keep in mind when you are purchasing what the longevity of that item is. Black Friday offers us the opportunity to buy some items of a higher quality than we might normally be able to afford. This can also mean that the items we buy may last longer than what we would typically buy. For example, spending more on a winter coat, cooking set, or large home appliances may be good investments to make this week. Buying these products when they are made of a higher quality can mean that they last longer and that you have to buy and dispose of a less-expensive version less often. This may mean that you buy less items on Black Friday, but you can save the same amount of money.
If you can shop the sales in person, this can help limit emissions created by shipping and can help stimulate the local economy as well. It is especially great if you can focus on sales put on by local businesses such as Arcus Gaming or Paper Princess instead of large chains.
If you are going to shop online there are still two ways to keep it as eco-friendly as possible. First, try to consolidate your order by shopping from the same stores so you have a few large carts instead of multiple small ones. Secondly, ship responsibly by avoiding express deliveries. Express delivery works by putting fewer items in trucks meaning that it increases how many trips the drivers are making and how many emissions are created. By shopping early and waiting for longer delivery times, you can decrease the emissions created by online shopping.
Being eco-friendly doesn’t mean we don’t get to enjoy things like massive sales or shopping, it just means that we think deeply about our choices before we make them. Ultimately, this can give us that good feeling that comes from saving the planet while also helping keep our homes free of clutter and our wallets from being empty due to impulse buys. Plan ahead for Black Friday this year and remember to be thankful for the many gifts we get from this planet.