A greener Black Friday with Hettie

It's time for change

This year is time for change. We have all seen and heard the news from the world's leaders and scientists at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

And we all have our part to play in helping reduce emissions when we shop more consciously. Time to think before we buy and make some positive choices when making festive purchases this year.

Make a pledge to spend your hard-earned money only with planet-positive businesses throughout the festive shopping period. Hettie is committed to making quality products that stand the test of time.

Start planning a little bit earlier too . Being mindful takes time and thought and rushing leads to quick fixes that are a burden on our planet.

It’s estimated that 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away and not recycled in the UK - so look for plastic free options if you can. Gifts for kids are often full of plastic so maybe look for natural, organic and eco-friendly ideas this year.⁠

⁠And wrapping paper ! We all know how it is admired and looks pretty for a few seconds and then just ripped apart and put straight into a bin bag.

It is definitely a single use item and worth exploring other options

 

 

Counting the cost

The cost of Black Friday and people buying frantically is huge.

Take a look at these statistics about the impact of Black Friday on the environment, and on us human beings:

  • Black Friday increases air pollution, with an additional 82,000 diesel delivery vans estimated to be out on the UK roads alone to fulfil orders, with plastic toys and short- living electronic goods among the most popular purchases.
  • Black Friday-fuelled Christmas shopping also contributes to the vast amount of waste discarded at this time of year.
  • 429,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions were churned out by Black Friday deliveries in the UK last year.
  • Consumers in the US spent 121% more on Black Friday purchases in 2018, compared to every other day of the year. At the same time, 48 million Americans were still paying credit card debt from the previous year’s holiday shopping
  • 80% of Black Friday-purchased electronic goods, clothes and plastic packaging will end up in landfill, incineration or low-quality recycling after a very short life. 50m tonnes of e-waste is generated each year. Only 20% of it is recycled.

 

Buy buy buy

Unfortunately, mass ‘buy, buy, buy’ events like Black Friday create a negative impact

All the profits go back into big corporate and marketing companies and they end up with big bonuses the more stuff they shift .

Over consumption of things people don't really need delivers more waste into a system that is already overloaded. And then we all end up with pollution in our water systems and soil.

Continuing in this way just supports the supply chain to make more of the things people don't really need , and ends up impacting the environmental ethics of product development.

Many large companies purposely make things cheaply just in order to sell them at a "knock down " price on Black Friday .

 

 

Why is it called Black Friday ?

In the 1950s, across the United States, crowds of shoppers began descending on the cities from the suburbs the day after Thanksgiving; the cold, autumnal day fuelled by the festivities of a Thursday feast and lit with the excitement of a bargain ahead of Christmas.

The result was crowds on the pavements and badly parked cars resulting in the police having to work long days away from their families to manage everything.The police in Philadephia started to call it " Black Friday ' to describe the work day after Thanksgiving

This term stuck , and clever marketing expanded it into the four day event of buying chaos that we all know today

 

Shop sustainably with Hettie

Hettie is a brand that truly cares about the planet and the effect that what we do as consumers has on this- for our children and their children.

We want you to treasure the things you buy from us for a long time.

The philosophy "Buy less , choose well , make it last " is very true.

The wool that we use in many of our products has a lot of environmental benefits and is a wonderfully friendly fabric . You can read more about our sustainability ethos here




 

I read a wonderful quote this week which is very apt for the situation we are all finding ourselves in this year.

"Christmas is not in danger. The work of local artists and makers is not stuck in a dock on a shipping container, This is the perfect opportunity to shop local"

 
 

 


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