Buy Nothing Day: An Eco-Stepper's Answer to Black Friday

Here it comes again... that day of post Thanksgiving, deal-getting, stuff-buying, early-bird-door-busting, trampling, gotta-have-it shopping.  For many of us in the United States, that day is known as Black Friday - the biggest and busiest shopping day of the year when many retailers give shoppers the "best deals" possible for the Christmas holiday season.  How can that be bad, right?  Well, our spending and consuming have reallly put us in a financial bad place.  The average American adult will rack up nearly $1000

 on his or her credit card during the Christmas shopping season.  For two adult households, that's $2000 in credit card debt.  To use Annie Leonard's terms, our Story of Stuff has now become our Story of Broke.   The good news is, each of us has control over how much we spend.  We can simply buy less.  Luckily there is an answer to Black Friday.  It's called  Buy Nothing Day. 

Got Sole??

No, not the fish, although that could be tasty.  What I'm talking about here are the soles on shoes.  How many shoes do you have?  How many do you need?  Arguably, most of us probably have way too many shoes in our closets.   Some we wear now and then, a few pairs of these, a couple of pairs of those in various colors, heel types, out-of-date styles, etc.  Although I did a post last year entitled Surrender your Soles about donating shoes to those who are in need, a recent stop at my local Good Will drop off location reminded me that it was probably time to take another inventory.  The receiving attendant commented that Americans have way too many shoes (based on the fact that the previous donation was over 50 pairs-- from one woman!).  Kudos to her for donating her shoes.

Here's an interesting thought:  Every year, between 100 and 300 million pairs of shoes end up in landfills.  What's worse is that these shoes take anywhere from 40 to 1000 years to break down, depending on what they're made from. 

Adding insult to injury, a quick Internet search indicates that nearly 300 million people are without shoes.  No shoes.  Period.  Think about how your daily life would be different if you didn't have any shoes to wear, or anything to protect your feet.

With Earth Day celebrating its 41st birthday on April 22nd, donating your gently used and rarely worn shoes to those in need is a great way to eco-step your way to a greener tomorrow and to help your fellow humans. What a great way to show your Earth Day spirit!

From personal experience, I can tell you that donating your shoes and spreading the word is not hard at all.  Last  year, I collected 57 pairs of shoes (from just my immediate family) and sent them to Soles 4 Souls. 


You can find the nearest Souls 4 Soles Drop off location here: 
http://www.soles4souls.org/about/locations.html
 
Below are some other excellent places to donate your shoes:
 
Goodwill
 
Salvation Army
 
Volunteers of America
 
I am sure there are others.  If you know of another place to donate shoes, please share.
 
Happy Eco-Stepping and Happy Earth Day!