Growing up in India, I had seen Black Friday in various movies and TV shows – people lining up outside stores the night before, running in as soon as the doors opened, having catfights over a TV. It all seemed so bizarre. Black Friday is the face of heightened consumerism in North America and is slowly making its way across the globe. However while consumers get excited in the name of massive sales, the environment suffers over the hidden damage of these deals.
Black Friday Madness
In addition to the large amount of CO2 emissions that this day produces through mass production of goods, transportation and delivery, Black Friday also promotes linear consumption. This means that consumers tend to buy goods that do not last as they might be out of trend, cannot be repaired or recycled and end up in landfills (or consumers just throw them in landfills anyway). There is a need for consumers buying circular products -products that can be reused, repaired or recycled that do not end up in a landfill at all.
How does one get exposed to circular products instead of linear products in the shopping season?
Enter Circular Monday – the sustainable alternative to curb the massive linear overconsumption Black Friday creates. It was founded in 2017 in Malmö, Sweden by circular cloth repair company Rempara AB which aimed to gear consumers towards buying circular and sustainable products. Not to anyone’s surprise, Circular Monday falls on the Monday before Black Friday making it more visible to consumers getting ready for Black Friday. This initiative brings together multiple circular businesses to promote their products and sustainable endeavours while providing discounts making these products more accessible – debunking the idea that sustainability always comes at a high expense.
Circular Monday is very popular in Europe and has expanded its database of circular companies to all around the world. With the increasing number of circular products and consumers making sustainable choices in Canada, I think it would be a great idea to begin the trend of Circular Monday here.
We currently have “Buy Nothing Day” concurrent to Black Friday where consumers pledge to buy nothing. “Buy Nothing Day”, in my opinion, seems redundant compared to Circular Monday as we lose out on the chance to promote circular sustainable goods and with Circular Monday we can do both – not buy linear goods and buy circular goods (at a discounted price).
Sources
https://www.hejhej-mats.com/circular-monday-in-germany/?lang=en
https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview
https://www.circularmonday.com
