People are living in a 'throwaway society', using things for a short time and then throwing them away. What are the causes of this? What problems does it lead to?
Answers
Over-consumption and excessive production of cheap, short-lived items have resulted in our throw-away society and been detrimental to the environment seriously. Many businesses produce more affordable, disposable items instead of making an expensive product that will last a long time, considering that people always desire to own the latest products. For example, items like mobile phone covers and cases that change the look of handsets have always been replaced by people after a short-term euphoria being experienced. However, even those short-lived items are told to be 'disposable' by advertisements, many of them cannot decompose easily. For instance, an aluminum case or can will remain in the earth's landfills for hundreds of years still similar to the one which was placed there in the first day. Furthermore, non-degradable solid wastes in landfills will produce carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are extremely powerful greenhouse gases that are depleting our ozone.
From my respective, in order to solve this problem, some measures could be effective. Firstly, minimize the consumption of short-lived products for individuals. Thus, people should be encouraged to spend money on long-lived items, rather than constantly replace things. Meanwhile, the decrease of consumption could contribute to the reduction of the production. That is, businesses would be forced to invest money in making the products with higher price but more functionalities and longer lifespan if the demands of customers changed. Last but not least, recycling and reuse can also assist in alleviating this problem. Instead of throwing away or disposing off 'unwanted' items to the second hand shops, it would be beneficial to the environment if people can reuse some products. For instance, outmoded T-shirts could be used as cleaning clothes and empty cans could be used as simple vases or pen containers.
In conclusion, despite the truth that throw-away life style is detrimental to our environment seriously, some feasible solutions such as reducing consumption of short-lived products, reusing and recycling some unwanted items would solve this problem.
It is evident that most people this day purchase things, for instance, phones, clothes and use them for a short while and throw them away. Due to this throw away culture; there are dire consequences that arise. One, these consequences is mass production of short lives goods while the consumption goods are produced in lea quantities.
Another effect is the vast quantities of unusable things that are disposed of before they are unable.