Buy Nothing in Auckland - Sunday 24 November 2002

It's crazy. It's silly. But it makes you think and that's the point.

On Sunday 24 November - Buy Nothing Day in Auckland - people are being urged to take a day of rest from shopping and to stop and think about the effects of unnecessary and wasteful consumption.

Our overconsumption has a tremendous impact on the physical and social environment. Buy Nothing Day highlights the 'reduce' part of the 3 r's - reduce, reuse, recycle, and calls on individuals, businesses, local councils and governments to find solutions to what the 1992 Earth Summit document, Agenda 21, refers to as "the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment".

As the Christmas shopping frenzy begins, advertisers are urging us to increase our consumption in the guise of 'giving'. Auckland Buy Nothing Day organisers are offering an alternative. The BND Christmas Gift Exemption Certificate is a simple way of avoiding the stress of Christmas shopping and reducing consumption at the same time. Exemption Certificates will be available at the Grey Lynn Park Festival or from the BND website: http://www.hybridweb.co.nz/buynothing/exempt.asp

One of the BND Auckland spokespeople, Tahira Patwa, asks people on Buy Nothing Day to "take the challenge and opt out. Find out what it's like not to shop. It'll open your eyes to the way we live."

Web: http://www.hybridweb.co.nz/buynothing

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