Riot Black Friday
Milton Keynes based vape company Riot Labs shunned Black Friday and launched Green Friday
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by Dave Cross
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Announced on Thursday 24 November, the award-winning e-liquid and disposable e-cigarette producer, Riot Labs, revealed its plans to shun Black Friday - and support Green Friday instead.
The Milton Keynes based firm, which has 40+ staff, has opted to champion green efforts on one of the busiest consumer events of the calendar year.
Since the arrival of Black Friday in the UK in 2010, the event has become synonymous with mindless consumption, excessive packaging, and shipping waste. Experts estimate this year’s shopping bonanza will generate 429,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from product deliveries alone. That is the equivalent of 435 return flights between London and New York.
Its rapid growth - and the resulting impact on the planet - has sparked a reaction from an upwardly mobile group of environmentally responsible retailers. That includes the likes of sustainability pioneers Patagonia, and eBay - who launched their own green initiatives last week.
Riot Labs has already made 'green' history in the vape industry in 2022, having developed and sold the world's first carbon negative disposable e-cigarette - and launched a dedicated nationwide recycling scheme to encourage users to recycle their vapes sustainably.
Dubbed ‘Green Friday’, last week Riot Labs launched a 50% online discount across the whole online store www.rioteliquid.com with 100% of the net proceeds going directly to Coolearth.org – the charity championing the relationship between people, rainforest and climate.
Riot Labs hopes the initiative will set an example to the vaping sector to do more to be sustainable, whilst the donation will see funds go direct to rainforest communities, to fund projects that create choice, tackle the root causes of deforestation, and protect vital carbon sinks.
Ben Johnson, Riot Labs Founder and CEO said: “There’s no shortage of stats on the impact of Black Friday. The fact 80% of purchases from Black Friday end up in landfill sites, are incinerated, or recycled incorrectly really resonated with us - because it’s a similar huge challenge the industry faces with disposables.
“After a proud year for launching green initiatives, we were committed to championing sustainability on one of biggest consumer spending events in the calendar. Whilst our contribution might be a small step to fighting a giant problem, it’s essential for progress and to encourage others in the sector to do more."
Riot Labs work in the sustainability space - and its commitment to helping people quit smoking - was recognised just last week, after the firm was awarded the Sustainable Vaping Award, and Best Marketing / PR Campaign in the Vaping Industry for their Riot Rehab Quit Smoking tour at the UKVIA Awards - the largest vape industry body.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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