Throwaway Mentality/Society

" Throughout human history people have husbanded their resources to avoid future shortages. Only in the past fifty years have we developed the inclination to readily throw away things that our ancestors would have husbanded. Why?


Our capitalist economy is driven most powerfully by the desire for wealth and jobs. The faster we make and sell things, the more jobs are available and the greater the available wealth for entrepreneurs. A huge advertising industry has been developed to encourage people to consumer faster and faster. Television in the United States alone broadcasts approximately 20,000 commercial messages each day.

As our homes filled up with what we have come to perceive as junk, the market system came to our rescue by developing items designed to be thrown away after one use: beverage containers, tableware, cameras, books, clothing, writing materials, sporting goods, and on and on. Throwaways did not just go to the dump; they also littered public places.

By succumbing to the allure of throwaway, we forgot (or never learned) that there is no “away.” The first law of thermodynamics tells us that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed; they can only be transformed: everything has to go somewhere. As our landfills overflowed our throwaway mentality came back to haunt us: we now were confronted with a huge waste disposal problem. Ironically, we did not see our folly as a waste of resources, or even as a detriment to ecosystems, but rather as a pileup of litter, for which there was no more room at the dump. What then?"

[ Milbrath, LW 1995, ‘Throwaway Mentality/Society’ in Conservation and Environmentalism, an encyclopedia. Robert Paehlke, Garland Publishing, New York, pp. 624 ]

via: GreenDesigners