Marija Đurović
Black Friday is not just a day of big discounts but a symbol of mass consumption with serious consequences for our planet...
Marija Đurović
Senior Manager
The origin of the term "Black Friday" hides intriguing stories, with one theory linking it to the darkest periods of human history—slavery. Although this story has long been debunked as a myth, its symbolism still prompts us to question: in today’s era of mass consumption, have we become slaves to consumerism?
While retailers use tricks to lure us into mass spending, we, despite being aware of their strategies, continue to fill our carts and virtual baskets. And as we indulge in impulsive buying, few of us consider the consequences and impact of this shopping spectacle on our ecosystem and the environment.
Approximately 80% of products purchased during Black Friday end up in landfills, are incinerated, or improperly recycled. This statistic points to a massive problem with consumer culture, which encourages the purchase of often cheap and low-quality products. These impulsively bought items generally have a short lifespan, further exacerbating the waste problem. Electronic waste, which makes up a significant portion of these products, is especially harmful as it contains hazardous components that can contaminate soil and groundwater. Similarly, clothing and footwear purchased during Black Friday often come from so-called fast fashion, an industry that generates large amounts of textile waste, with synthetic fibers taking hundreds of years to decompose.
In addition to the enormous amounts of waste generated by Black Friday, a significant contribution to pollution comes from the transportation and delivery of purchased products, leading to enormous gas emissions. In the United Kingdom, for example, emissions produced by delivering packages purchased during Black Friday in 2023 were equivalent to 435 flights between London and New York. Globally, hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 are added to the atmosphere due to just one day of mass consumption.
With the rise of online shopping, the demand for increasing amounts of packaging grows yearly, leaving troubling environmental consequences. Endless amounts of plastic and cardboard used to protect goods during transport end up in landfills or, worse, in nature and oceans. Plastic packaging, which should be a useful tool, becomes a symbol of our irresponsible use of resources—less than 10% of that plastic is truly recycled sustainably. The rest remains as a silent witness to our consumerist neglect, taking centuries to decompose and polluting ecosystems. Imagine, pieces of packaging from one product bought in the heat of shopping today could persist on our planet far longer than we will. This is not just a waste problem but a call to reflect on the kind of world we are leaving for future generations.
How to reduce the impact?
The solution, of course, is not to completely abstain from shopping but to learn to make more conscious decisions that will bring long-term benefits to both us and our environment. Every purchase we make can be an opportunity to contribute to nature conservation. Here are a few simple yet significant steps we can take:
Black Friday is no longer just a day for chasing discounts and deals. It has become a reflection of our consumer habits—a measure of what we, as a society, value and base our daily lives upon. The decisions we make today will shape the world we live in tomorrow. If we want a cleaner and more sustainable planet, we must start making more responsible choices.
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