Black Friday is known by many as a huge day of sales leading up to Christmas. Year upon year the event takes over our high streets and promises affordable deals for everyone.
Many of your favourite high street brands get involved with the weekend of deals, some offering up to 40% off. With huge online fashion retailers like Shein offering up to 90% off many products.
For context, Shein’s average pricing per item in the UK is £7.90 per item, this means they could be selling items at overly reduced prices, which leads one to think about how they can even make products with quality at that price.
But in recent years, the weekend of deals has been rejected by specific brands in order to fit with raising concerns of overconsumption. Among the few to make the switch are Adanola and Patagonia, with others like Rituals introducing initiatives like ‘Green Friday’ that aim to tackle excessive product waste.
According to research carried out by Finder, the average Brit plans to spend on average £124 during Black Friday weekend. Overall it’s estimated that in the UK alone there will be £3.9 billion spent during the 2025 sales, with 58% of the population taking part in the event and an estimated 60% in the East Midlands specifically.
New initiatives have been brought forward especially in the EU in terms of waste management and excessive dumping. The revised waste framework directive, implemented in October of this year, which includes an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), means member states are held responsible for their Countries recycling independently.
This would allow producers to be held financially responsible for the end-of-life impact of their products. According to the UN environment programme, consumers are buying 60% more clothes but wearing them for half as long, causing more textile waste in landfills. The UK is considering adopting an EPR scheme in order to reduce waste in landfills that comes directly from retailers and consumers.
On a lighter note, if we look back at companies like Rituals, they have a mission statement attached to their initiative ‘Green Friday.’ It outlines that with every refill they sell, they pledge to plant, protect or restore a tree. This aims to discourage customers from buying new products but to instead get involved with less packaging waste and buy the products that can be refilled.
There is also a movement that was started by environmental activist called Green Friday that shows people avoiding the sales altogether, and instead focusing on nature or ignoring the high street for this specific weekend.
All in all, Black Friday is a very tempting time, as we all know, but in the coming years we should try to think more consciously about what the sales actually mean and the bigger picture for our global ecosystem.
Downloading the app Good on You is a start, it’s aim is to give brands sustainability scores that show their ethical and environmental implications. The app can be your way to change some habits when it comes to shopping overall, especially with the Christmas season upon us.
