International Buy Nothing Day – Consume Less and Help the Environment
By Debbie Kerman, NIU STEAM deputy director
As the cold winds blow, we’re quickly reminded of the upcoming holiday season and all the shopping that typically comes along with it. Shopping the Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday discounts has become almost as much of an American tradition as Thanksgiving dinner. Despite rising prices this year, 140 million Americans are expected to spend an average of $362 each, totaling approximately $51 billion dollars between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whether we really need all that we’ll buy or not, technology is helping retailers become more and more savvy at finding ways to convince us we do and that we’ll be missing out if we don’t act now to take advantage of the amazing deals and discounts offered.
Not everyone, however, supports the consumerism chaos that begins with Black Friday each year and continues throughout the holiday season. Canadian artist and social activist Ted Dave initiated the first Buy Nothing Day in 1992 to raise awareness about the ethical and environmental consequences of overconsumption and protest consumerism culture. On this day, participants are encouraged to save money instead of spending on useless items that aren’t really needed, simply because they’re being offered at a deeply discounted price.
Buy Nothing Day is a great opportunity to give thought to how our excessive consumption culture is negatively impacting the environment. Every item we purchase requires some level of natural resources to produce. Take the clothing you’re wearing for example. It most likely contains cotton, which requires a significant amount of water to cultivate. In addition, production techniques like textile dying pollute our water system over time by releasing chemicals into our rivers and oceans. The emissions released in the garment transportation process also pollute and dry up our water sources. Buy Nothing Day encourages us to be more mindful about the resources we consume.
This year, Buy Nothing Day will be celebrated internationally on November 25th. Instead of spending, below are some ways you can “Buying Nothing.”
- Use this NIU STEAM Lesson to talk about needs and wants with your family.
- Encourage friends and family to take part. Spend some time researching talking points about ways they can help the environment and their wallet.
- Spend the day making homemade gifts for loved ones.
- Clean out closets and donate the things you no longer use or need. Repair items that are damaged to extend their use. Research ways to appropriately recycle worn out clothing that’s no longer needed.
- Spend the day doing things that don’t cost money like going on a hike or watching a holiday movie on TV.
- Invent something from nothing with this activity from the National Inventors Hall of Fame: STEM Activity: Invent Something from Nothing | National Inventors Hall of Fame®.
- Join a local Facebook group in your community to share items you no longer need and ask for items you do. Visit BNProject to learn more.
