Dd101_Tma02

Tma 02. Essay Plan. • Introduction quote rubbish amount per year • Mass consumption and supermarkets and higher standards of living • Higher wages, people can spend more • Environmental effects • Recycling items by giving away • Emma Maersk • Conclusion Explore the claim that a consumer society is always a “throw-away” society. In the UK 6.7 million tonnes of food (including fresh fruit, vegetables, bakery items, fish and meat meals) is thrown away each year. It is reported that 61% of food thrown away (amounting to £420 per year per household) is wasted unnecessarily. (Brown, 2009, Pg 106) This could be reduced or avoided if every household brought about better food management and only bought food in which they would consume and only cook enough food to be eaten without wasting any. Though food waste is only one part off overall household rubbish. During 2008 nearly 30 million tonnes of rubbish was threw away but UK households. (Brown, 2009, Pg 107) Overall household waste has increased by 28% from 397kg per person in the year 1983/84 to 508kg per person in the year 2006/07. (Brown, 2009, Pg 107) So in just over twenty years rubbish per person has risen by a quarter. In the UK rubbish land-fill sites are nearly full and if councils choose to incinerate waste it will lead to more pollution in the environment. Even though more households are increasing the amount they recycle, household rubbish only makes up 7% of the total UK waste. (Staples et al, 2009, Pg24) Household rubbish has increased due to a number of factors. One of these factors is due to the growth off mass consumption. Shopping and consumption have become an increasing part of today’s social life. When looking at supermarkets of today compared to the past we can see a big difference. Today’s supermarkets have a wide variety and extensive range off food from all over the world allowing people to constantly try new foods. Large supermarkets enable almost every household this large variety of products which is a benefit to the supermarket which is what they boast about. With rising affluence and increased mass consumption it is possible for people to have a higher standard. People can now afford to buy more products and replace them more frequently even when it is unnecessary, without considering the negative impact that disposing their old items which they consider to have no value will have on their environment. The wages off people today are higher than what they were 20 – 50 years ago, especially with it being “normal” for both men and women to work. Working and having a higher income means that people have more to spend on luxuries which means that there will be more consumption leading to more waste. With the amount of hours that people work on a weekly basis they need products that will save the, time, so they buy labour saving goods and pay for labour saving services which then leads to yet more waste e.g. disposable nappies. Many people also find it cheaper to replace items when they get broken due to repair / labour costs being high so the broken products are left in need off disposal. With people having a higher income they like to “show off” their wealth by buying the most up to date luxury goods but these goods lose their value quickly as there is constantly new models being brought out to encourage people to spend their money and discard of the old product to purchase a newer more up to date one. Environmental effects due to the implications of rubbish and peoples wastefulness have brought about a new understanding that the environment has been undervalued. Global human consumption (including rubbish) is “environmentally unsustainable”. In 2008 the global annual consumption amounted to 40% more than the planets annual resources and reabsorptive capacity. (Brown, 2009, Pg 115) Many household goods and personal items do not always need thrown away. It can be passed onto friends, family, charity shops or sold on internet auction sites. This means that items which have no value to you may have value to someone else so rather than throwing something out it can be recycled by passing on to other. (Brown, 2009, Pg 120) Conspicuous consumption can be regarded as wasteful in one aspect (when people buy products that they do not need) but not in another, buying new clothes, home furnishings or spending money on leisure activities can be seen as symbolic consumption that is geared toward what others perception on yourself and what they deem and being in fashion or as cool. (Brown, 2009, Pg 114) The perception that people have about rubbish has changed, this can be related to the changes brought in by local authorities it means that households in the UK are beginning to throw away less than they have done previously and more of the rubbish that is thrown away is being recycled / composted. People’s behaviour has changed and the level of rubbish that has in the past been acceptable is not accepted anymore but this change may not be sufficient to affect the rate of the environments unsustainability. (Brown, 2009, Pg 117) Although rubbish may not have a value to one person or may have a negative value. (as it will cost time or money to dispose off) There is businesses called “rubbish business”, these businesses make money out off others rubbish by collecting and getting rid off it. To make money out off someone else’s rubbish, they turn it into either something saleable or disposing off it elsewhere. (Brown, 2009, Pg 117) On a larger scale the Emma Maersk which is the worlds largest container ship in the world which is able to facilitate 11,000 containers. It arrives in the UK arriving from China and full of consumers but returns to China full with products for disposal and recycling. (Brown, 2009, Pg 118) Recycling waste in one part of the world and then bringing it back when it has been recycled and transformed so it can either be used as a new product or be used in the production of a new product. I have looked at how rubbish may have no value to one person but by passing it on to others or by recycling it we give it s value. Rubbish should be valued or recycled and not just thrown away; this will benefit the environment and reduce the amount that rubbish costs society. We have undervalued our environment and overconsumed our planets natural resources, our environment should be valued and needs to be conserved. Referring to the original question and a throw away society, I feel that we are a society that throws away too easily instead of reusing and recycling, but we as a society are learning and are beginning to reduce the amount we throw away but it may be to late for our environment and the negative impact we have already imposed on our society. Sarah Houston PI C2494587 Word count 1131. References: Brown, V. (2009) ‘Rubbish society: affluence, waste and values’, in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S. (eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Staples, M., Meegan, J., Jeffries, E. and Bromley, S. (2009) DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences, ‘Learning Companion 2’, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Self Reflective notes. I have enjoyed reading about society and learning how peoples attitudes are changing with regarding to the environment and how to conserve it. I find it difficult to set out an essay to then write it from the plan.