Buy Nothing Day 2007

Today is Buy Nothing Day in North America. The event is also celebrated in the United Kingdom on November 24 this year. Buy Nothing Day began in 1992 in Canada as an initiative by Ted Dave. He was working in the advertising world and wanted to perform an act against the constant appeal to over consume. His motto was: Enough is enough! Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries constitute 20 % of the world's population yet they are consuming over 80% of the world's natural resources. This causes a disproportion level of environmental damage and an unfair distribution of wealth. Buy Nothing Day is meant to raise the consumer consciousness in the hopes of encouraging a life long commitment to consuming less, recycling more and challenge companies to clean up and be fair. The idea has been adopted by several countries with Buy Nothing Day activities in at least thirteen countries this year. Participation is easy. Simply buy nothing the entire day. You can also organize an event, hang a poster in your window, blog about it and tell others.

Buy Nothing Day is a good time to reflect on what you buy and how it impacts the environment and developing countries. We've all heard of brand loyalty but does that company really deserve your loyalty? Sure they might produce the product you want but at what cost? Do they have a firm environmental policy in place? Do they pay their workers a fair salary? How do they treat their workers? How do they produce their goods? Are they producing toxic waste during production? Are they using cheap labour in developing countries where the workers are not protected? What about packaging? Are you buying the product because of advertising or because you really need it? Advertisers want us to believe we have to have the product. After all, that is their job. What aren't they telling us? There are so many questions!

This is a great day to write that letter to telling them why you won't be buying their product because of . So please spread the word. Hang a poster. Write a letter. Blog about it. Talk about it. Participate by not shopping!