November’s Shopping Fest Is Massively Hurting the Environment
From what we buy to how we buy it — it’s all pretty bad
Shopping. It’s even fun just to say it out loud, isn’t it? Of course, it’s much nicer to actually do it, and there’s no better time to shop than right now, November. The holidays are looming, stores are trying to ready themselves for next year’s lineup, so “SALES! SALES! SALES!” signs are everywhere. We, the consumers, are playing along, big time.
This year’s Chinese Singles Day broke records with a staggering $139 Billion in sales. Americans spent $9 Billion last Black Friday, second only to the $10.8 Billion spent days later on Cyber Monday. Brits spent around £10 Billion during the Black Friday weekend while Germans spent €7 Billion. I could go on and on but you got the point, we do a lot of shopping during November, and while it’s great fun and good for the economy it’s massively hurting the environment. Here’s how:
Packages
Between Thanksgiving and New Year, more than 12 billion pieces of mail and around 900 million packages are sent across the US. This means an extra million tons of waste each week — 25% more than usual. 38,000 miles of ribbon is being discarded — According to NEEF it’s enough to wrap around the world with some extra for a nice bow. China is…
