Buy Nothing Day!

Buy nothing day was originally invented by a Canadian artist, Ted Dave and was promoted by the Canadian Ad-busters magazine. The first buy nothing day was held in Vancouver in September 1992. BND was presented to the people of Vancouver as a day to assess the over consumption issue in not only Vancouver but throughout the world. Today, it is celebrated in Canada on November 25, while in other parts of North America it is celebrated on the Friday after Thanksgiving. 

Ted Dave, is an artist activist and an actor. He was working as a graphic artist of Georgia Straight and became increasingly frustrated with the cost of day to day living. As a result he decided to start Buy Nothing Day, which he states that, " Absolutely everything around us in the urban environment is set up to be coercive, to get you to by things spontaneously." Although this day is to promote restricting how many useless items we buy, many critics say that it will only promote  people to buy things that they need the following day. Ted Dave omits the idea by telling critics that Buy Nothing Day is simply a start in which people will eventually make better choices to restrict themselves from over consumption. 

Personally I think that Buy Nothing Day is a huge eye opener to the general public. My Media Studies class and I, last year had promoted BND  through posters and announcements to the school. It was interesting to see how many of us failed when the time came. Most of us didn't even realize that we had purchased something. It was almost like just a routine to hit up the cafe for one of their amazing cookies every morning. I am going to admit that I did this on BND and didn't even realize that I had failed before I even sat down in my homeroom class. I felt awful, I had been apart of a group of people who were promoting this day for weeks and when the day finally came I did exactly what I was not supposed to do. Could I have lived without the cookie, of course I could have.

BND opened my eyes as well as many others in my class, to see just how many things we waste our money on, and don't even realize that we have done it! Since that day, especially now being a university student living on my own I have learned how important it is to spend wisely. It is not always about where you buy things if it is "name brand", I can hardly tell the difference any ways. It is about doing what is better for not only our bank accounts, but for our environment.

 Between 2004-06 Canada has an total waste disposal of 52, 475, 943 TONNES. If those numbers aren't a big enough eye opener for one to cut back on their over spending on useless things, I don't know what will. Buy Nothing Day is certainly a  stepping stone for Canada and the world to cut back on their waste disposals, to help better our economy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_jpG6kv6Pw

John Mckay, Vancouver actor better known as an activist,  September 15, 2000, http://www.teddave.com/nothingtext.html, November 19, 2008

Stats Canada, Disposal and diversion of waste, by province and territory, 2004 and 2006, http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/envir32a-eng.htm, November 19, 2008