The Buy Nothing movement

The Buy Nothing movement

Read about the Buy Nothing movement and answer the questions to practise and improve your reading skills.

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Preparation

Reading text

Social media, magazines and shop windows bombard people daily with things to buy, and British consumers are buying more clothes and shoes than ever before. Online shopping means it is easy for customers to buy without thinking, while major brands offer such cheap clothes that they can be treated like disposable items – worn two or three times and then thrown away.

In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year, which is around four per cent of their income. That might not sound like much, but that figure hides two far more worrying trends for society and for the environment. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. British people currently owe approximately £670 per adult to credit card companies. That's 66 per cent of the average wardrobe budget. Also, not only are people spending money they don't have, they're using it to buy things they don't need. Britain throws away 300,000 tons of clothing a year, most of which goes into landfill sites.

People might not realise they are part of the disposable clothing problem because they donate their unwanted clothes to charities. But charity shops can't sell all those unwanted clothes. 'Fast fashion' goes out of fashion as quickly as it came in and is often too poor quality to recycle; people don't want to buy it second-hand. Huge quantities end up being thrown away, and a lot of clothes that charities can't sell are sent abroad, causing even more economic and environmental problems.

However, a different trend is springing up in opposition to consumerism – the 'buy nothing' trend. The idea originated in Canada in the early 1990s and then moved to the US, where it became a rejection of the overspending and overconsumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday during Thanksgiving weekend. On Buy Nothing Day people organise various types of protests and cut up their credit cards. Throughout the year, Buy Nothing groups organise the exchange and repair of items they already own.

The trend has now reached influencers on social media who usually share posts of clothing and make-up that they recommend for people to buy. Some YouTube stars now encourage their viewers not to buy anything at all for periods as long as a year. Two friends in Canada spent a year working towards buying only food. For the first three months they learned how to live without buying electrical goods, clothes or things for the house. For the next stage, they gave up services, for example haircuts, eating out at restaurants or buying petrol for their cars. In one year, they'd saved $55,000.

The changes they made meant two fewer cars on the roads, a reduction in plastic and paper packaging and a positive impact on the environment from all the energy saved. If everyone followed a similar plan, the results would be impressive. But even if you can't manage a full year without going shopping, you can participate in the anti-consumerist movement by refusing to buy things you don't need. Buy Nothing groups send a clear message to companies that people are no longer willing to accept the environmental and human cost of overconsumption.

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Average: 4 (33 votes)

Submitted by Suraj paliwal on Thu, 21/10/2021 - 16:00

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I think buying nothing is good initiative for our world. In modern days people buy lots of clothes from online or offline and they overspend on clothes. It's a not very good for environment.
I loved to going shopping but since two years I have changed.

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Submitted by zalo enrique on Tue, 08/06/2021 - 00:58

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I think it is a good initiative, and we can help too, fixing some devices, avoiding to buy new things

Submitted by Geunha on Wed, 24/03/2021 - 10:23

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Overspending is big problem these days. If you make the shopping list before going to the shop, it is able to prevent wasting.

Submitted by mohamad90 on Mon, 22/02/2021 - 15:11

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It's a great idea. overconsumption not only changes the natural environment trends but also changes the financial trends. It enriches big companies that dominate small businesses.

Submitted by Ehsan on Sun, 10/01/2021 - 08:30

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It's a great idea. In this way we can help ourselves, other humans who don't have enough money to spend, and the environment. participate in that, help the world to be pleasant.
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Submitted by danisep on Thu, 03/12/2020 - 20:41

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I think that not buy nothing it is pretty excessive proposal but it is something, we need to find a solution because the harm to the planet would be irreversible, companies are letting the care in our hands, in market there are plastics bottles and carton bottles but we still buying plastic, so they are gonna still produce plastic. If we stop the consumption of cheap and disposable products, companies are gonna do something. And by other hand it is necessary to consume to move the economy, we can't stop buying but we need to change our consumer habits.

Submitted by Murat on Mon, 30/11/2020 - 16:06

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this article is crazy. if everyone buy nothing that could be lose their job end of the month

Submitted by Ugulhan on Tue, 17/11/2020 - 07:38

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It is actually true, I agree with that, but sometimes if you want to go shopping and look for some cheap shoes, maybe you will see some discounts in shops, then you will spend 10$ instead of 30$. In this change, I want to use my credit cards.