OK, so I'm almost a week late with this, but Keep Britain Tidy only sent me the press release on Friday - the day its 'Buy Nothing New Month' 2024 initiative began. For me though, it's a message well worth sharing anyway - particularly as Black Friday falls later this month, on 29th, with the cheap, impulse-buy-inducing deals being carried through to Cyber Monday, three days later. Further, it’s part of a growing, global movement to reduce consumption and create a circular economy, sitting alongside ‘Buy Nothing Day’ - celebrated internationally in November, (and like Black Friday, on 29th this year) along with Australia's October ‘Buy Nothing New’ campaign. 

  

The press release revealed that 70% of UK adults say Black Friday promotes the excessive consumption of goods. It also revealed that Black Friday alone is likely responsible for the release of around 400,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and that 80% of the impulse purchases made (and their packaging) end up in landfill. When the charity surveyed those who took part in the last ‘Buy Nothing New Month', 73% had managed to buy nothing new throughout the month, with an additional 26% buying less stuff than they usually would have done. Equally importantly, 75% said they'd reused or repurposed what they had already, while 43% fixed, repaired, or mended an item. I’ve been repurposing and repairing for years. It gives me a lovely ‘smug’ feeling! 

  

“People default to recycling rather than waste prevention and appear to lack understanding of what waste prevention (reduce and reuse) actually means,” argues Keep Britain Tidy. “This is in direct contrast with the waste hierarchy (more commonly communicated to consumers as 'reduce, reuse, recycle') which tells us that recycling is only the third best option when looking to reduce the environmental impact of what we purchase, use and dispose of. We need people to buy less and maximise the life of stuff that already exists: we urgently need the widespread adoption of waste prevention behaviours. Most engage in waste prevention but not necessarily extensively and most associate waste more with what they throw away than with what they buy. They consider 'wasting better' rather than 'wasting less'. This confirms a fundamental misunderstanding of the waste hierarchy, where waste is seen as something to be 'managed' rather than prevented. This lack of knowledge is a significant barrier to the take-up of waste prevention behaviours, which needs to be addressed.” 

  

When I joined this industry one of the first things I discovered was the benefit of using concentrates rather than storing and transporting large bottles and packs of chemicals bulked up with water, (dilute to suit at point of use) along with using only as much chemical as is recommended by the manufacturer – a calculation massively aided by a dosing system. It’s great to be part of an industry that’s been spearheading waste prevention and sustainability for decades, don’t you think?