Question__“Explore_the_Claim_That_a_Consumer_Society_Is_Always_a_‘Throw_Away’_Society.”

In order to answer the question set, it is important to initially look at what consumption is, how is manifests itself in a modern society and how that is then responsible for the increase of waste. The assignment will consider what waste is and how it is produced. It will then progress on to look at the amount of waste produced per capita terms and how this has changed since 1950. The author will define “throw away” in order to explore the claim that a consumer society is always a ‘throw away’ society. The assignment will make a claim that becoming a throw away society is a natural development to enable it too become an affluent one however recent developments in waste management means that it is often a throw away society and not always one. It will then conclude and summarise all points made. During the last thirty years, the dominance of consumption over production has changed society to one where importance is placed on what we consume, rather than where we work or what skills we might have. Consumer behaviour has changed from purchasing the necessities to more of a relationship the consumer, the product or service and the lifestyle it represents. According to Hetherington, 2009 (pg37) these changes can be identified as far back as the late 19th century at a time where department stores began opening across Europe. This exciting new time offered people an array of choice all under one roof thus offering a safe and secure shopping experience. As production of products and services increases the type which have only recently become readily available. It has manifested itself into ensuring both shopping and consumption have become important in social life. As competition increases to become a market leader these shops now offer plenty of choice at prices that many households can afford. A significant factor in the rise of consumption is affluence, according to Brown (2009, p. 108) there has been a rising prosperel of prosperity not being sustainable for the UK households who had reaped the benefits before hand. Consuming can be defined as a social activity as much as it is an individual one. According to Hetherington (2009. p 20) the part of society with something to offer for example advertising agents certainly lead people (consumers) to believe that to be able to consume places them in an acceptable part of society and thus giving the appearance of successfulness. As a result of this increase of consumption comes with it the increase understandably in waste and rubbish. The end result of consumption is the waste that results from a new laptop or new TV and according to Brown (2009, p103) the rubbish that is left then moves to become offensive and valueless much unlike the products that were previously contained within it. Consumption has changed over time in terms of what the modern society places most significance upon or what is classed as a necessity. According to the ONS (Cited in Brown, 2009, p.110) in 1957 thirty three percent of a household income was spend on food however, in 2006 the figure had more than halved to fifteen percent showing that in modern day society there has been a change in necessity over luxury. These changes are also demonstrated when you consider wastefulness as well as rubbish. Wastefulness according to Brown (2009, p. 106) is a situation whereby items such as food are being thrown out with out being used simply because the consumer has over bought. The Food We Waste Report (Cited Brown, 2009 p. 106) states that as much as a third of all food bought in the UK each year is wasted. As much as £420 per house hold in the United Kingdom is wasted on food that was never needed. The shift in changes of necessity over luxury could be the under lying effect of society becoming much more affluent. Society achieves more allowing more spendable cash, a greater importance on material items makes society more prone to become wasteful and therefore creates more rubbish; as society maintains you are successful providing you have the right car, place to live or holiday location. Many labour saving devices such as items around the home have become far cheaper so it becomes much easier to throw the item away and to be able to afford to replace it with a new one. Fixing appliances at home has become expensive so it means that the item is disregarded and a new one is purchased. The speed at which rubbish and waste is increasing is environmentally unsustainable, according to Brown (2009, p. 115) in recent times there has been more a push towards the implications of rub did understand that should all the rubbish just be thrown away it would not be sustainable both economically but also environmentally. To conclude, the claim that a consumer society is always a throw away society is not true. Society often is a throw away one but there are promising figures that waste management is helping to change people’s way of this for example the figures given by DEFRA. In order for a society to develop naturally, economically spsh were recycled were better year on year. While is important to note that perhaps the problems around waste and more importantly wastefulness comes from the sellers and not from the consumers. Word Count 1145 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. Hetherington, K. (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., Jefferies, E., and Bromley, S. (2009) DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences, ‘Learning Companion 2’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.