Circular Monday initiative promotes reuse, recycle and re-purpose efforts in daily life

Circular Monday is a local initiative that works to change consumerism, choosing sturdy, sustainable products over poorly built ones.

Monday Nov. 24 marks Circular Monday - a global campaign that promotes an alternative to the traditional “take, make, waste,” model of consumerism. The aim is to get people worldwide to upcycle, repair, and reuse products they already have.

Instead of mass consumption, Circular Monday highlights items that are built to last products that are durable, easy to fix made from recycled materials, or part of sharing platforms and the growing second-hand market.

The movement originated in Sweden in 2017.

In 58 different countries around the world, organizations hold events, workshops and social media campaigns aimed at changing how people consume.

Neeraja Priyanka is the national spokesperson in Canada for the Circular Monday effort. Priyanka is hoping that the public will look for opportunities to change habits in all areas including during the different seasons throughout the year.

“Now with the winter season coming, we all need snow blowers, shovels - but maybe we could borrow one from your neighbor,” said Priyanka.

“You can get together maybe five or six in the block, buy one snow blower and then rotate amongst us instead of buying one and putting in the garage for the rest of the year.”

The movement isn’t placing the burden to change habits entirely on the consumer.

Advocates maintain that producers of goods and services should evolve their business model to support more sustainable production choices and reduce the global carbon footprint.

There is hope for the future that the young will adopt a broad reuse/re-purpose approach into 2030 and beyond.

Consumer research as obtained by Trellis reveals that as many as 68 per cent of consumers in 2023 said they were considering buying second-hand holiday gifts. Among Gen Z, the number rises to 83 per cent. This signals that younger generations are far less hesitant about used products than their parents.