Blue Friday: changing the outcome of the world's biggest shopping day
Blue Friday is back again this year and ready to make an even bigger splash. Thanks to everyone who supported us last year, we were able to raise over $15,200 for the Surfrider VI Chapter’s Rise Above Plastics Campaign . This funded the instalment of 2 Seabin’s in Canada’s largest marina. Hint hint, that is right here in North Saanich! Each bin should clean up 1.5 tonnes of trash per year. This year, we hope to get one more.
Seabin’s are ‘trash skimmers’ designed to be installed in any body of water with a calm environment, such as marinas, yacht clubs and ports. The Seabin moves up and down with the range of tide collecting all floating rubbish. It can intercept floating debris, macro and micro plastics and even micro fibres with an additional filter. This innovative technology can catch an estimated 1.5 tons of floating debris per year (including micro plastics down to 2 mm small!). To say we are thrilled about this achievement would be an understatement.
Despite the hardships of Covid-19, the group of eco-minded, local, Victoria based businesses - L/L Supply, Goldilocks, SALT, Zero Waste Emporium, West Coast Refill, Salt and Seaweed Apothocary, The Market Bags, and Wychbury Ave have pledged to donate all profits from their Blue Friday Sales to instal more Seabin’s in our surrounding waters.
We buy a staggering amount of junk without thinking twice about it and with no regard to future generations and the impact our actions will have on them. Plain and simple, Black Friday, along with the rest of the holiday shopping season, hurts the environment for many reasons. Why is this?
To name a few of the many factors contributing to the destruction of our environment…
- Plastic Waste: “Billions of pounds of plastic [is] produced every year, and 91% of that isn’t recycled” (National Geographic, 2018).
- Shipping: an estimated “15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages” (United States Postal Service, 2018) are shipped over the holiday season in North America alone.
- Overconsumption: Buying things we don’t need.
- Fast Fashion: buying into the newest trends only throw them out shortly after and repeat the cycle.
Plastic waste, fast fashion, holidays dedicated to over consumption, convenient shipping options, and cheap, low-quality products - these are just some of the many reasons local Victoria Businesses are taking it into their own hands to promote sustainability by giving back to the planet. This year as you prepare for the Holiday shopping season, these local brands are urging you to consider the environmental, social, and waste costs associated with your purchases.
Shop with purpose. This year, you have the power to turn your ‘Black Friday’ into a ‘Blue Friday’ where you can be sure that all of your purchases are giving back to the environment by not shopping at all or simply shopping locally for all of your Blue Friday needs.
