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The Friday after Thanksgiving has come to represent sales, shopping, and retail culture. Naturally, some people are going to reject that. Many people choose to spend the day off outside. Others observe Green Friday.
Green Friday is an attempt to redirect the consumerism around Black Friday and into environmental action, and has been championed by several major retail corporations, including outdoor outfitter REI.
Volunteers observing Green Friday joined Nicole Corey, the executive director of Natural Restorations, an Arizona-based non-profit, to pick up litter along the Salt River.
"Everybody walks away with a sense of 'I gave back, I did something good, I have something I can look at and know that I made an immediate difference,'" Corey said. "We want everybody to just have stewardship to be natural to them and to always leave an area better than they found it."
Thanks to a rainy fall, a lot of trash has washed up on the banks of the Salt River this year.
"It is pretty interesting to come across some of the giant '80s boomboxes with the multi-tape decks and really huge speakers," Corey said. "I don’t understand how that can get left behind. We’ve found grills in the water that people have set up, like a shade canopy and grilled food, then just walked away, leaving everything behind."
