PREPARING FOR THE CHRISTMAS RUSH?

2020 will mark the end of a very difficult year for most and Christmas perhaps provides the opportunity to go ‘all-out’ on lavish celebrations and a mountain of present buying. Well, that’s what you may think if you’re glancing at the many glossy TV, online and magazine advertisements which are infiltrating your lives on an almost daily basis!

We at Cycle of Good, like a growing number of movements, think that we deserve to be a little kinder to ourselves if we took the pressure off, stepped away from messages of mass consumerism and really thought about what gifts we’d like to give and receive this year and beyond.

Perhaps one insight from the global pandemic and lockdown is that more of us are appreciating our natural environment and want to become more sustainable for life. According to a study by Biffa, 41% of Brits feel guilty about the amount of waste they generate at Christmas but (in the words of Erasure, ask your parents Millennials!) it doesn’t have to be like that!

BLACK FRIDAY!

That is why we won’t and never have, participated in Black Friday as our prices are fairly priced all year round! Fair to us, means fair for all. We pay our tailors in Malawi a fair wage for quality products. We are a charity (a trading subsidiary for Krizevac Project, registered UK charity 1115608) so don’t take any profit. All our surpluses are ploughed back into our social enterprise and educational projects in Malawi.

PLASTIC IS NOT FANTASTIC

We are all too well aware about packaging waste all year round. At Christmas this is amplified to crazy proportions and if you like a statistic, approximately 100 million black bags full of packaging from toys and gifts will be generated in the UK alone. We are doing our bit at Cycle of Good and will not contribute to this! Our packaging is 100% plastic free and comes in recyclable packaging so nothing from us will be hitting a black bin bag.

GIVE BETTER

Our products are made from recycled materials, like old inner tubes, lorry curtain and coffee sacks, which are repurposed into things that we think you’ll actually need, use and love! Every single item purchased from Cycle of Good funds the building of schools and provides employment in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Because we hate waste, we promise that our products are built to last a lifetime and if they don’t come up to scratch, we’ll mend or replace for free.

So this year, why not give a gift that is not only beautiful, but has a story. Helped others. Sustainable and ethical. A gift for life while changing lives…