The Black Friday Challenge

The Black Friday Challenge

Hey it’s Thanksgiving! A wonderful time of year to celebrate family, friends and the warmth of gathering over a meal. It’s also the biggest shopping holiday of the year. According to a survey just released by the National Retail Federation, 58.7 percent of shoppers, or 135.8 million people, said they “definitely will” or “may” shop on Thanksgiving, Black Friday or the two days that follow. Wow.

So what’s that go to do with recycling? Well, plastic shopping bags, is what. Plastic bags are a BIG problem for recycling. They are an amazing invention for the lightweight carrying of goods. However, their lightweight nature also presents challenges. We have all seen pictures like the one above of bags caught up in trees and bushes. They should be recycled, but did you know, they don’t go in your regular recycling? They get caught in the recycling machinery and can shut down facilities for hours at a time.

The right way to recycle plastic bags is to take them to your local supermarkets and look for the special shopping bag recycling bin. Please remember to remove all receipts and other trash from the bags first.

HOWEVER, even better than recycling plastic bags is to not use plastic bags at all. This November, let’s take the “No Plastic Bag Black Friday” challenge, and do our holiday shopping with reusable bags. Speaking of shopping, here are some stylish reusable bags you may want to add to your list this year. Best of all, after purchasing an EnviroVogue Recycled Plastic Tote, a donation is made to support the fight against breast cancer, the Maasai Association or the Kajiado Central District of Kenya. How’s that for some holiday cheer?

For those visiting brick and mortar stores, we could save a lot of plastic if we remember to grab our own bags from the corner of the kitchen, throw them in the car and then take them into the stores.

So this Thanksgiving, help the planet share in the warmth of the holiday by shopping with reusable bags. If you do end up with plastic, please recycle at your local store.

Leave us a comment below if you have a creative way of reusing your plastic bags this year.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr