The Disposable Generation

A subject that I've been thinking about recently for various reasons is my generation's (and following generations) propensity to simply discard.

By this I mean all material things - whether it be clothes, plastic bags, computers, toasters, calculators, sunglasses or whatever else we possess... everything appears to be disposable these days. Much of it has become so cheap to buy that we possess more than one of something that previously would've been financial non-viable.

Now this is not a preach... I am as bad as the next person with this, but it is something I am thinking about and consciously trying to change.

Take shoes for example - how many pairs do you have? Out here in Oz I reckon I have 2 or 3 sets of casual shoes, a pair of sports shoes, 2 pairs of thongs/flip flops, and some walking boots. Now that doesn't seem a lot, but then back in Blighty I definitely have the same again if not quite a few more sports shoes. Everything has it's own specific use - yes I have tennis shoes, squash shoes, gym shoes, running shoes, hockey shoes, and probably a general pair of trainers just in case I am called into action randomly to play korfball...

It seems excessive to me, and it's this that I am writing about - as things are so cheap, we buy lots. We buy lots and throw away lots too - we never fix things, because it's pretty much cheaper just to buy a new one / pair /set etc. But this is not the true cost of material excess. The true cost of not repairing/fixing anything is at least three-fold;

1. Financial cost of purchasing new one in a store
2. Cost of disposal - rubbish dumps around the world are filling up fast, and filling up with millions of tonnes of our semi-broken mobile phones (and such like) which will take hundreds if not thousands of years to degrade. Instead they will be buried so we don't have to look at the waste we have created, whilst the toxic chemicals from the plastics and paints leach out into the soil, degrading our waterways and slowly killing the environment around us.
3. Cost of production - the non-financials of producing each individual plastic toy, metal bumper, polystyrene packaging, wooden shuttering for concrete and such like - draining the worlds' resources such as our forests, mineral stores, and creating pollution through coal fired power stations, plastics manufacture, forest clearing for 'sustainable crops' ...
   

Our behaviour as humans is simply not sustainable.

Do we think about either of the second sets of costs when we purchase that replacement television? I reckon a very small percentage of people do, and I reckon that not many people even bother to recycle the waste product. I think it's sad.

If you also consider the 'convenience' side of life that definitely has a hold in England & America, and I've seen it creeping into various other places around the world I've visited. Everything is made for those 'on the run', whether it's excess packaging to ensure optimum transport or pre-packaged food for 3 minute lunches from the microwave. Packaging is one thing, but simply convenient 'pocket sized' products, single serves, take away cups, plastic-bottled water, and plastic take away cartons - they're everywhere, and generally we only use them once before they hit the streets or if we're lucky - the bins. Are our lives really so busy that we can't simply take 5 minutes at lunch to sit and eat off a plate, or even go to the extent of carrying around a bottle which we re-use to drink out of?

I just want you all to think of these things before simply going out + buying the replacement / supplement product or buying yet another cheap bottle of water, and perhaps think whether it's possible to repair the hole in their jacket before simply throwing it away or taking another plastic bag home from the supermarket. If it does have to be thrown away, please at least think of recycling things?