Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the UK’s biggest shopping season is here. Known as a time for appealing online shopping deals and discounts, many ignore the harmful environmental impact the season can bring. A study has found that when faced with a bargain, only 1 in 4 people take the environmental impact into consideration.

Reports on the environmental impact of Black Friday in 2024 have found that Black Friday deliveries alone released almost 430,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the UK- equivalent to 435 round-trip flights from London to New York!

Not only does Black Friday create on average 700,000 tonnes of cardboard and plastic packaging waste in the UK, but it’ estimated that 80% of Black Friday purchases will end up in landfills; Some sooner rather then later-with research from one consumer survey finding 52% of buyers regret their Black Friday purchases a week later.

The Students' Union at UWE Bristol are proud to have been recognised as the 'Highest Scoring SU for Sustainability’ for 9 Consecutive Years. We support students at UWE to reduce their environmental impact year-round with our events and initiatives.

We challenged students to keep their shopping green on Black Friday with some sustainable swaps:

· Thrifting or swapping instead of buying new

· Keeping items in their cart for a week or more before they complete a purchase, ensuring they really want and need what they planned to buy

· Supporting brands that use ecofriendly and fully recyclable materials

· Try gifting experiences instead of physical gifts, to create memories while reducing waste

· Unsubscribing from constant ‘deal’ or ‘offer’ emails, to avoid temptation and clear up your inbox.

Many people use this time of discounts as an opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts, and recognising the environmental waste that the holidays can bring, we want to help reduce waste created where possible.

As an additional sustainable swap, we are asking our students to use recycle wrapping paper. Did you know that most wrapping paper is completely unrecyclable?

On Friday 5th of December, we will be hosting a fun, festive drop-in session at Bower Ashton Campus where students will have the chance to decorate and take home their very own wrapping paper, using paint and potato stamps.

Find out more here.

Photo by Iuliia Pilipeichenko on Unsplash