Black Friday, a truly black Friday for the environment

429 thousand tons of CO2 are emitted per year due to Black Friday.This is why there are more and more protest and boycott initiatives.

429 thousand tons of CO2. There were many emissions produced in 2020 on the occasion of the Black Friday and tracked in the report Dirty delivery of the money.co.uk website.To put this in perspective, purchases made during this day pollute how much 435 flights return trip between London and New York.

The biggest problem of this day of crazy discounts, as the report highlights, lies in the logistics. Black Friday purchases mostly happen online, assuming a massive use of road transport.Each medium-sized parcel delivery from Asos for example, which uses Dpd and Hermes as its main delivery companies, generates approximately 3.68 kg of CO2.

Again according to the data collected in Dirty delivery, in 2019 Amazon elaborated 4.4 million transactions during Black Friday and the forecast for the same day in 2022 is growing.In addition to this, another huge problem is represented by the packaging, the use of which increases dramatically in November, generating the highest volume of waste in the second year Greenpeace.

but not only that, since Black Friday is now its younger brother Cyber ​​Monday, have become global events, the mere prediction of an increase in purchases leads to a significant increase in production in any sector.

The Black Friday trap

According to clinical psychologist Dr Jonathan Pointer this day and the communication that is created around it, are deliberately orchestrated to throw into the panic people who risk missing out on “business” if they don't act quickly.Lauren Sharkey explains it well in her article published on Bustle “The problem of Black Friday, according to environmental experts“.

The number of truly advantageous offers is in fact limited, so ultimately there are few people who make real deals, on the other hand, however, the media circuit ensures that people still plan to make purchases during this day.

For 2022 in Italy the estimated average spend for Black Friday will be 182 euros per person, although 54 percent of the sample examined could spend up to 300 euros.This was revealed by an investigation conducted by the newspaper Republic, according to which for three out of five interviewees, Black Friday represents an important occasion.One in three interviewees instead hypothesize that they will buy more than in 2021.

The short circuit that has been created in recent years around Black Friday means that many brands decide to produce more ahead of this day.And the problem is that they do it not only by simply expanding the ordinary catalogue, but creating ad hoc products which do not always respect the quality standards that we usually recognize for that same brand.

In the field of technology, most of the products put on sale during the last Friday of November are limited editions made with poorer materials, according to an investigation by the broadcaster NBC News.  Not to mention that the brand that puts them on sale claims a very high original price, so as to be able to offer a stellar discount.

Electronics and textiles in fact, they are the sectors in which people buy the most during Black Friday.A search for Fit Small Business in fact it indicates that the 77 percent of women will direct their purchases to clothes and accessories, while 78 percent of men will focus on electronics.

We have already talked at length about how much the overproduction is the biggest problem in the fashion world.Initiatives such as Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday lead to such an increase in consumption that, in80 percent of cases, the clothes purchased with these discounts end up in landfill without even having been never worn.

Clearly not all discounts stimulate senseless consumption, here there is also an opening accessibility theme.Many may wait for a sale before purchasing an essential product, like a new mattress for example.In textiles the border is always very blurry:a report of Fashion Revolution reports that 29 percent of shoppers in the United Kingdom expect to spend more on clothing and shoes during Black Friday, risking shopping not for essentials, but for superfluous.

Black Friday has been around since the 1920s 

Before it became the global and environmentally catastrophic event that it is today, Black Friday had a life relatively limited to the United States first and then to the Anglo-Saxon universe.

In 1924, despite being five years before the Wall Street crash and the Great Depression, the USA was experiencing one of the most prosperous periods in its history, the Roaring twenties, in which the idea of ​​begins to take shape consumerism.Given the proximity to Christmas, Macy's department store decided to give an additional boost boost to business with this day of discounts, intended to inaugurate the Christmas shopping period.

There are various theories circulating as to why this day is called Black Friday, from the most poetic and least accredited, to the most macabre and probable.In the first the wording is attributed to the color used to mark the useful in the accounting books of the shops:red for passive, and black for active.The last Friday of November marked the moment for the shops to finally be able to use the black pen.

In reality, the most probable hypothesis is the second:when e-commerce didn't yet exist, the only way to get discounts was to physically go to the store creating understandable traffic and mobility inconveniences, if not actual clashes.In fact, it seems that "Black Friday" was said in relation to this day for the first time in the 1960s by some Philadelphia cops, as they devised an action plan to prepare for “Black Friday.”

In the 1980s, the Black Friday phenomenon took on increasingly larger and more global contours and dimensions and then resulted in what we know today: an event ridden in an important way by any type of company.The phenomenon has taken on such a scale that today in many cases we talk about Black Week, or an entire week dedicated to discounts.

Furthermore, since 2005 there has also been the Cyber ​​Monday.This latest date was created by the online division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), the largest association of retail traders in the world, to give a boost to the e-commerce of electronic products.

From Green Friday to Blue Friday, the boycott initiatives

In Europe, fortunately, we are starting to prefer the Green Friday on Black Friday.In fact, for some years now there has been awareness of sustainability has raised more than one doubt about this hyper-consumerist anniversary so much so that, in 2017, a movement of explicit boycott, Green Friday indeed.

The collective, as stated on the site, aims to make the last Friday of November a reference day to increase awareness, through concrete actions and campaigns in favor of responsible consumption.

In fact, more and more brands, belonging to the world of fashion and otherwise, are deciding to take action in open contrast with the wild discounts.From those who close e-commerce on Black Friday, to those who produce informative and informative material or organize in-store initiatives to repair used clothes.

Not only that, in Venice on 25 and 26 November the Blue Friday, a two-day event organized by Ioc-Unesco, the body that deals with the United Nations Decade of Marine Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030).A series of meetings for companies, institutions and citizens to transform this period of November into a moment of reflection and protection of the Mediterranean.

Among the initiatives implemented by companies, theOrange Friday of Save The Duck which, from 25 to 28 November, in conjunction with the day against violence against women, will donate 20 percent of its revenues to Pangea's Afghanistan Emergency project, to support the social and economic emancipation of Afghan women.

Patagonia inaugurates one repair station fixed in the Milan store, a real station for repairing garments of the brand at any time, which on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th will also be open for the repair of clothing from other brands.

Ecoalf, a clothing brand with a sustainable soul, has launched the awareness campaign #recyclingBlackFriday;While Artknit Studios sent a newsletter to all its customers and subscribers entitled “Think Twice”, inviting us not to buy during these days, but to love more what we already have.

To encourage conscious and responsible consumption Cortilia promotes companies of excellence that employ production practices oriented towards low environmental impact, the protection of biodiversity and social initiatives;While ULTRASOUNDtech, a brand of ultrasonic repellent products, boycotts Black Friday with the Black out initiative which involves the total closure of the online shop from November 21st to 28th.