International Buy Nothing Day – Precycle And Live More

To buy, or not to buy? International Buy Nothing Day (BND), on Saturday 29 November, is about starting a lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste.

Many countries – New Zealand is among them but not Australia it seems (?) – are running their own BND days.

A Loaded Planet

We have six billion people on the planet, so, the argument goes, the onus is on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example!

Do we need all the ‘stuff’ in our lives?

The spirit of International Buy Nothing Day is to question if we can truly live beyond a consumer culture, and if so how? What are possibilities, problems and implications? GK Chesterton says:

“There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

Precycling Would Help

Precycling means reducing waste by attempting to avoid accumulating it in the first place. Precyclers try to cut out as much packaging as possible so they think ahead, shop locally, buy things loose and bring their own containers. The benefits range from saving money and creating less landfill to reducing food miles and conserving natural resources. Read more here.

How DO you get the message ‘out there’? I guess efforts like this help…