Extract from Buy Nothing Day Web site

What is Buy Nothing Day all about?
Buy Nothing Day challenges consumer culture by asking us to switch off from shopping for a day. Its a global stand off from consumerism.

Where did BND come from?
Buy Nothing Day started in 1993 by the founders of Adbusters and is now an international event celebrated in over 55 countries.

What's the point?
As consumers, we should question the products we buy and the companies who produce them. The idea is to make people stop and think about what and how much they buy effects the environment and developing countries.

But what will I achieve?
It's incredibly challenging to last 24 hours without shopping. You'll feel detoxed from consumerism and realise shopping is less important. For a brief moment you'll got your life back, that's a big achievement! We want you to make a commitment to consuming less, recycling more and challenging corporations to clean up and be fair. Modern consumerism might offer great choice, but this shouldn't be at the cost of the environment or developing countries.

Do you want me to stop shopping altogether?
It won't hurt to stop for one day and we don't expect the UK to grind to a halt on November 30th 2002. Like we said, we want to challenge people to think about the effects of what they buy has on the environment and developing countries.

What is so bad about shopping?
It's not shopping in itself that's so harmful, it's what we buy. The two areas that we need to concentrate on are the environment and poverty. The rich western countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and unfair distribution of wealth. We need to worry about the way our goods are produced. Increasingly large companies use labour in developing countries to produce goods because its cheap and there aren't the systems to protect workers like there are in the west.

What about the environment?
The raw materials and production methods that are used to make so many of our goods have harmful side affects such as toxic waste, destruction of wild life, and wasted energy. The transport of goods internationally also contributes to pollution especially when many can be produced nationally.

Is one day really going to make a difference?
Buy Nothing Day isn't about changing your lifestyle for just one day - it's a lasting relationship - maybe a life changing experience! We aim to make Buy Nothing Day stick in peoples minds so they think about the future and turn their back on the throw away society we have become.