Some YouTube stars now encourage their viewers not to buy anything at all for periods as long as a year. The trend has now reached influencers on social media who usually share posts of clothing and make-up that they recommend for people to buy.

Throughout the year, Buy Nothing groups organise the exchange and repair of items they already own. On Buy Nothing Day people organise various types of protests and cut up their credit cards. The idea originated in Canada in the early 1990s and then moved to the US, where it became a rejection of the overspending and overconsumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday during Thanksgiving weekend. However, a different trend is springing up in opposition to consumerism – the 'buy nothing' trend.

Huge quantities end up being thrown away, and a lot of clothes that charities can't sell are sent abroad, causing even more economic and environmental problems. 'Fast fashion' goes out of fashion as quickly as it came in and is often too poor quality to recycle people don't want to buy it second-hand. But charity shops can't sell all those unwanted clothes. People might not realise they are part of the disposable clothing problem because they donate their unwanted clothes to charities. Britain throws away 300,000 tons of clothing a year, most of which goes into landfill sites. Also, not only are people spending money they don't have, they're using it to buy things they don't need. That's 66 per cent of the average wardrobe budget. British people currently owe approximately £670 per adult to credit card companies. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. That might not sound like much, but that figure hides two far more worrying trends for society and for the environment. In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year, which is around four per cent of their income. Online shopping means it is easy for customers to buy without thinking, while major brands offer such cheap clothes that they can be treated like disposable items – worn two or three times and then thrown away.

Social media, magazines and shop windows bombard people daily with things to buy, and British consumers are buying more clothes and shoes than ever before.

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