‘Circular Monday’ signs on more supporters to offset Black Friday impact

Black Friday is expected to break sales records this year. That, of course, means that the annual retail discount event following U.S. Thanksgiving will also generate high amounts of waste and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Circular Monday this Nov. 25 proposes an alternative to the “take, make, waste” industrial model. The campaign, which originated in Malmo, Sweden, in 2017, now involves 1,200 companies from 40 countries. Logitech, eBay and Zipcar are among the supporters of promoting circular economies ahead of the holiday retail rush.

“More can be done by brands and broader value chains looking to play an active role in the shift to a more circular economy,” said Marie Perriard, Logitech’s sustainability communications manager. “Examples include supporting repair solutions to keep products working as long as possible, reducing demand for raw materials and using more recycled materials, and refurbishing products and allowing people to access premium technology at a reduced price. Circular Monday is an opportunity to raise awareness of options for consumers.”

The Circular Monday website maps “circular” companies in dozens of countries and online community-building events. Organizers invite businesses to join its database, whose variety of providers includes product rental marketplaces, furniture repair services and “eco-friendly” event planning.

Is Circular Monday anti-consumerism? Not exactly, according to the website: “On one side you have Black Friday, known for its linear consumption and shopping hysteria. On the other side we have ‘Buy nothing day'” that was born as an antidote to Black Friday. ‍We believe the future is right in between these two poles, right on the border between yin and yang.”

“Ideally, be a voice for good and be a good corporate citizen,” said Simon Bergbom, head of U.S. communications for Circular Monday supporter We Don’t Have Time. “But then secondly, I think it can really drive business too.” We Don’t Have Time grew out of the United Nations’ Race to Zero effort in 2018 and counts more than 400 partner organizations.

“We need to stop buying things we don’t need and embrace a circular economy now,” said Circular Monday’s cofounder Alexandra Davidsson in a statement. She co-founded the carbon footprint calculator Climate Hero, which organizes the campaign. “Forty to 70 percent of global carbon emissions result from unsustainable production and consumption.”

Sales from Black Friday to Cyber Monday will break $75 billion, rising by 5 percent over 2023, according to Bain and Company. Among the negative effects:

• Black Friday is responsible for 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions in the United Kingdom alone, according to “Building a Circular Economy,” a 2019 report from think tank Green Alliance and Leeds University.
• And nearly 80 percent of the Black Friday products and packaging people buy are wasted, fated for a landfill or incinerator.
• Buyers return 15 percent of Black Friday purchases, according to findings in 2023 by True Fit, an AI-enabled shopping tool.

Circular Monday’s backers note a rise in institutional support for circularity in recent years. For example, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is financing “initiatives focused on promoting reuse, recycling and waste reduction.”

Rise of reuse, repair and recommerce

“I’m supporting it because we need to bring more attention to different kinds of economic models that are better for people, planet, and ultimately business too,” said social media influencer Anne Therese Gennari, author of The Climate Optimist Handbook.

Recommerce, the practice of selling used or refurbished merchandise appears to be gaining traction:

• Sixty-eight percent of consumers are planning to buy secondhand gifts for the holidays this year, according to the OfferUp Recommerce Report 2024. Among Gen Z shoppers, that’s 83 percent.
• In addition, 74 percent feel that gifting used goods has become more socially acceptable, up by 7 percent from a year ago.
• Secondhand clothes sales will make up 10 percent of all clothing purchases in 2025, according to the latest McKinsey State of Fashion report. Resale marketplaces for brands from Carhartt to Coach are abundant. So are recommerce services, such as Trove and Archive.
• More than one-third of consumers plan to earn holiday spending cash by selling their belongings online, according to the July survey.

Alternatives to Black Friday

“Black Friday” has had negative connotations for generations, even back to its nickname in September 1869 for a calamitous fall in gold prices. As for the term’s modern origins, Philadelphia police officers in the 1950s appear to have used it to describe disorderly throngs of suburban shoppers post-Thanksgiving. Marketers spun “Black Friday” into a positive retail “holiday” in the 1980s.

Circular Monday continues a decades-old backlash against Black Friday. A Canadian artist created Buy Nothing Day in 1992. In 2012, culture-jamming activists observed it with a “zombie walk” in a Portland, Oregon, mall to draw attention to “predatory capitalism.”

Patagonia’s 2011 “Don’t buy this jacket” campaign is the stuff of ad legends. The Swiss messenger bag maker Freitag now closes its stores on Black Friday. Its website reads, “Say no to Black Friday. Don’t shop. S.W.A.P.”

Buy Nothing Day has since evolved into Green Friday, enlisting past support from corporations including Vodaphone. IKEA has participated by giving vouchers to people for selling furniture through its buyback service. The company seeks to become fully circular by 2030.

Other alternatives include Blue Friday. Paris-based skincare brand Typology’s “Black for Good” campaign emphasizes ethical shopping. AmEx in 2010 launched Small Business Saturday to draw shoppers’ attention to smaller merchants.

[Connect with the circular fashion community and gain insights to accelerate the shift to a circular economy at Circularity, April 29-May 1, Denver, CO.]