So, it’s that time of year again! You prepare to spend hours waiting in line (or hunched over your laptop in bed waiting for 0:01am on Thursday night) to get your hands on something from your Christmas list! That new vacuum cleaner, black friday TV set or home treadmill (priming your home to smash your 2022 fitness goals – we’ve all been there).
While we are all for grabbing early Black Friday deals , the frenzied shopping in the golden era of online shopping isn’t doing any favours for the planet.
Remember that thing called climate change that’s been in the news for the past month with more and more worrying statistics - well the coming weekend is about to make it much worse!
What's wrong with Black Friday?
Purchasing products you need is very different to buying clothes, shoes or a new TV just because it’s on sale. Last year Brits spent £5.9 billion on Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals according to research on Finder, with the average spend tallying to £295 per shopper at the sales event.
But the more alarming statistics were that up to 80% of those Black Friday purchases were estimated to end up in landfill, or a low-quality recycling centre, often after a very short life.
Secondly, shopping for things you need in bulk is actually a good thing. You’re packing more things in one pack with a single delivery as opposed to multiple trips requiring a lot of packaging to deliver the same number of items.
However during black friday, you’re usually buying things you don’t need. You buy it as ‘it’s on sale’ or has the lowest price or because you have half a second to figure out if you want it. Not to mention, you're thinking, 'it's fine if I don't like it, I'll just return it!' The issue with this is that all those extra deliveries are costing the environment.
For Black Friday 2020, home deliveries alone churned out 429,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in Britain. You add on the return’s emissions (if you ever got round to returning those products) and the number of greenhouse emissions will have our climate change problem soaring!
Additionally, 2,480,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste were generated by the end of last year in the UK alone making it an incredibly planet damaging time of year!
So what are we doing about it?
As a cruelty free company, we wanted to do our part for the planet! That's why we've decided to go green for Black Friday to keep our Black Friday sales as planet friendly as possible! Here's the line up for Black Friday:Â
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Planting 5 trees for each order instead of 1 to help combat the environmental damage caused by frantic Black Friday offers and purchases.
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Promoting discounts we know we can absorb the costs of (instead of cutting costs in our supply chain). This is so the smallholder farms we source ingredients from are still being fairly paid.
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Using 100% plastic free, eco friendly packaging for all orders. It is fully recyclable and compostable in your own home to stop any further damage to the planet.
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Having an early Black Friday sale by setting up a VIP list for our gorgeous community to access all our best, Black Friday deals a full 24 hrs before anyone else. Take your time and shop knowing you've made a purchase you are entirely happy with!Â
Sign up to our exclusive VIP list below and be the first to access all our eco friendly Black Friday deals before anyone else! Best of all with every purchase of Vegan Collagen, we're planting 5 trees so while we help you take care of your skin, you help us take care of our planet!
