Spain will hold a “Green Friday” to popularize reasonable consumption Along with the massive sales, the country will hold a Green Friday campaign, which is designed to reduce environmental damage from mass consumption and make smart shopping popular. The newspaper El Mundo writes about this.
The authors of the initiative believe that the tradition borrowed from the United States to arrange discounts at the end of November leads to excessive spending of funds and the accumulation of a large number of unnecessary items, which only the low cost tempted to buy. In addition, the sale of clothing runs counter to the desire of Western countries to withstand the climate crisis – often the quality of the clothes is so poor that they cannot be recycled or reused.
According to the UN, the fashion industry has the second largest impact on the planet, accounting for ten percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 20 percent of wastewater pollution. Ecoalf, a sustainable apparel brand, noted that more than 150 billion textiles are produced annually worldwide – 75 percent of them are burned or sent to landfills, increasing harm to the planet.
As part of the Green Friday campaign, some firms have decided to close their shops in order to protect the inhabitants of the country from unnecessary purchases and stop the anthropogenic influence on nature. Other companies, such as IKEA and the Vodafone cellular network, will pay more for recycling during this period so that unnecessary household goods and gadgets will not end up in a landfill, but will be able to get a second life.
In October, corks from plastic bottles found a useful use in Spain. Waste collected from schools in Valencia was turned into benches. The benches made of the new material turned out to be more practical than wooden ones – they are resistant to pests, and chips and cracks do not form on the surface.