Fewer goods do us good: how can we tackle overproduction?

Overproduction has been a crucial issue for Emmaus groups in Europe for several years. Donation points are overflowing, while textile quality, in particular, has dropped drastically, jeopardising the solidarity-based reuse model that we promote and having a devastating effect on the environment and human rights.

In addition to Emmaus’ advocacy work at the European level (see our article about the six tonnes of textiles that we dumped in front of the European Parliament), we wanted to highlight actions taken by European groups. Several European groups have taken up this issue through local initiatives or campaigns. With Black Friday week and its excessive consumerism fast approaching, we thought this might inspire you to organise initiatives within your groups!

Finland: “All you need is less” campaign

In Finland, Emmaus groups have launched an awareness-raising campaign with the slogan “All you need is less”! This campaign aims to remind the public that overproduction, in addition to being an environmental and social disaster, is not good for our wellbeing. In fact, the Finnish groups are not immune to the consequences of the textile crisis and are becoming overwhelmed by poor-quality clothing. Since early summer, staff members and volunteers from the shops have been wearing (second-hand) t-shirts printed with the slogan “All you need is less” and posters with the campaign’s messages cover their shop walls.

“The slogan ‘All you need is less’ is a warning about the consequences of our consumer habits. They cost us money, time, energy and the planet’s resources and increase the risks of exploitation of people who work for the fast-fashion industry”, explains Satu Dolke of  Emmaus Helsinki, the group behind the campaign. The campaign has received positive coverage in the local press and is set to continue through to the end of the year!

Black Friday awareness campaigns

Meanwhile, the Dutch group Emmaus Haarzuilens and the English group Emmaus Hertfordshire decided to take action by appealing to the general public ahead of Black Friday.

Netherlands: a mountain of clothes in a public place

The Netherlands group chose to use public spaces to raise public awareness in 2022 through a high-impact campaign. Together with Extinction Rebellion Utrecht, on the day before Black Friday the group staged a campaign with a mountain of free clothing to give away, along with banners and leaflets, in the heart of Utrecht city centre. The campaign message was “everything is already there; you really don’t need to buy anything new”, encouraging passersby to cut back on buying new clothes and to stop fuelling the fast-fashion industry.

England: #BuyNothingNewDay campaign

As part of its campaign to promote second-hand shopping, the Emmaus Hertfordshire group took to social media to share a short video featuring the slogan #BuyNothingNewDay. Through these posts, they aimed to steer shoppers towards buying second-hand Christmas presents from the group’s shop, which was at the time running special offers for the festive season. Moreover, the posts highlighted the positive social and environmental impact of buying second hand, as well as the savings made by shoppers.

France: advocacy campaign

Emmaus France has been speaking out about issues of overproduction for many years. This usually takes the form of advocacy work to change policies, such as their action with the Stop Fast-Fashion coalition seeking to create a law regulating fast-fashion in France. They are also involved in awareness-raising campaigns run with other partners, such as Green Friday. This initiative encourages brands to support solidarity initiatives instead of holding sales on Black Friday.

Organising across Europe and worldwide

However Europe is not the only continent impacted by this issue. Overproduction and overconsumption constituted a major theme at the World Forum of Alternatives, which brought together Emmaus groups from around the world in 2024.

On this occasion, a proposal was made to jointly develop an international campaign to combat overproduction/overconsumption to be put forward at the World Assembly.

If you would like more information about these campaigns or this project, or you wish to share your initiatives on overproduction and/or those linked to Black Friday, please contact Lisa:
lisa [point] ladenburger [arobase] emmaus-europe [point] org