Black Friday: 7 Reasons to Think Twice Before You Buy

Black Friday opens the end-of-year shopping season, and it now arrives in Israel too, with a wave of huge deals trying to sell us many things we don't really need — products that quickly become a financial, emotional and ecological burden, not to mention the lack of space at home.

If you're already refreshing product pages to add them to your cart, here are a few reasons to think twice. And no, I'm not saying stop buying altogether — just do it wisely and thoughtfully. Especially toward your bank account.

It is hard to see how the beautiful products in shops or online are linked to wasted resources and damage to nature, but mass production of consumer goods takes a heavy toll: the energy needed to ship goods from East to West, the plastic packaging that becomes waste, and the energy needed to keep products in stores.

Piles of clothes, gadgets and objects are choking our homes. Popular decluttering methods tell us to throw out whatever doesn't "spark joy" — and ignore the environmental cost of everything thrown away. Looking for a way to reduce clutter? Start by not buying things just because they are cheap, and choose quality items that will serve you for a long time.

Western fashion is driven by a consumption frenzy, and we are on a buying binge — clothing that costs as much as lunch and is thrown away after seven or eight wears. Fashion is only one example: phones, laptops, toys all quickly become things nobody needs. We need to stop constantly upgrading to the newest device, and stop thinking shopping will fill the hole in our soul.

Imagine holding a thick stack of new banknotes, and the sense of security it gives you. Now imagine walking to the nearest bin and throwing them in. Did your stomach turn? That is exactly what happens when we keep buying more. A 2012 study by the UK organisation WRAP found that if people simply wore what was already in their wardrobe for nine months, the UK economy would save about £5 billion.

The path from the click on the checkout page to the item arriving involves dozens of people. It starts with factory workers who, in many cases, work in poor conditions among toxic chemicals, and continues to warehouse workers buckling under the load of our shopping carts. Some companies, such as Patagonia and REI, earned public goodwill by giving their employees Black Friday off to spend time outdoors with family.

Progressive sustainability thinking says we need services, not products. Sharing — renting an evening dress or a designer bag instead of buying it, or using shared bikes and cars — lets us enjoy a wide range of things without buying them, and without throwing them away soon after.

The cheap materials our products are made of lower their value and undermine the economics of recycling. In Europe, for example, plastic recycling plants have closed because they struggled to compete with cheap new plastic. Recycling is no longer a magic word: smarter consumption means buying less, choosing reuse, and loving what we already have at home.

If you genuinely need something, Black Friday can be a great opportunity. If not, do yourself a favour: don't buy just because it's on sale. And remember that heavy sweater you bought at 70% off and wore twice — and the dilemma of where to donate it when you clear out your wardrobe two seasons from now.