pinkfloydpsw's Blog

A report on the throw-away nature of society.

Consumer Society – A society that fulfils its desires for goods and services through purchasing items that are essentials and luxuries, the quality of items may be defined by the affluence of the purchaser, the effective nature of marketing techniques used, a need to project affinity with a certain peer group.

Throw-away – In the context of this essay a consumer good or service that is bought, utilised and then discarded. This may be a an item that is designed to be discarded after use (planned obsolescence) or thought to be of no value once used for a period (perceived obsolescence) even though it may be still in working order.

An example of an item that can be produced to fit the categories I have mentioned is the shaving razor, a needed item for the non bearded man. A disposable razor costs around 40 pence and if one is used and discarded every day for let’s say fifty years then the razors consumed will be 18250 and the cost will be 365(days)x50(years)x40(pence), this is a total of £7300.  If a high quality cut-throat razor is purchased, circa £100 (quick internet search) it may be used for a lifetime and avoid becoming a pollutant by increasing in value as an antique or being inherited.

As we see the value of the disposable razor is defined not only by the buyer but by consumerism itself and its need for us to buy items that we will have to buy again and again. The disposable razor is not an item that represents good value financially in either the short or long term, so how are we persuaded to part with our money for a thing that may be in landfill by the time we purchase its replacement?

• Convenience –Value of time saved (negated by time spent purchasing).

• Ease of use – There may be very little need for instruction.

• Safety – The item may be inherently safer by design than the one it replaces.

• Price – Cost without consideration of positive or negative externalities

Who influences our value choices?

The choices we make when buying goods or services are influenced by more than the value to ourselves as individual consumers. The producers of things and sellers of stuff have an interest in creating perceptions and playing on the very psychology of self to help us to make choices that may be more to their benefit than our own. Supermarkets seek to establish a relationship between the supplier and the consumer using personal psychological identity, self worth and creating feelings of societal cohesion.

“The people recognise themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment” (Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man, Chapter 1: The new forms of control)

Brand loyalty, the personal identification with an item or service that reflects what we would wish to convey to others without actually saying it influences our spending choices, we may deliberately make bad value choices financially to increase our sense of our own station in a society that judges us by our appearance, the size of our home and by the items and services we consume.

A rise in affluence leads to a rise in consumption?

Credit allows for us to buy a lifestyle now and pay it off as we go so the scope for fulfilling our desires through purchases increases. Items that we could do without but are convinced that would feel better by having are more available to us. Fashions and fads driven by advertising and marketing ensure that we will perceive the uselessness of these items long before they have ceased to be functional and they will inhabit the cupboards of our homes until the day we bag them for the charity shop.

“The way we spend our money and pay our bills – for clothes and other items – also is to a considerable degree a reflection of class induced attitudes” (Vance Packard, The Status Seekers, 1960, Chapter 9)

Cost of rubbish

Things are made of things, made somewhere, at some time by some people. Making things requires materials, machinery and human labour (resources). If the value of a consumed item is unlikely to increase after it has been utilised then it becomes Waste. Management of discarded items is an industry that seeks to find ways of minimising the environmental impact of waste and the recycling of materials for use as resources in the building of new items to be consumed.

Rubbish has cost that are hidden, the cost of disposal is the major one we are all aware of but there are factors involved in waste that may not be apparent to the consumer. The cost of waste produced in the manufacturing process that takes place before the item is bought, the waste involved in transportation of goods and the waste produced in removing the resources required from the natural environment. Responsibility for the environmental impact of consumerism is negotiated and bought and sold as if it were a commodity in itself to a point where the consumer may be fully aware that their supermarket shopping has an impact on the natural world but its effects are far removed from their immediate attention.

Consumerism will create new needs from items that were once merely luxuries, the phone I bought in 1998 was a luxury, the phone my fourteen year old son has now is a need as he must be contactable by mum at all times when out on his own. Perception of items changes as the affordability of them and the affluence of the purchaser changes, technological advances render items cheaper and obsolete ever faster and the speed at which we consume them also increases. This increase must in turn create a greater need for disposal.

Pre-industrial societies didn’t produce much that could not be easily returned to the earth and because waste is a relatively recent problem it is yet to find a solution that is both sustainable and a suitable fit for the economic needs of developed and developing countries. Tradeoffs between the need for technological growth, increases in population leading to expansion of infrastructure and the impact on environment mean the problem of waste is not simply solved by a change of attitude on a societal level. It may make sense to buy apples loose in the supermarket and take them home in a bag that is compostable but economies worldwide may rely on the consumption of the cellophane and polystyrene wrapped alternatives and the development of alternative materials could cause shifts in the power base of manufacturing that would be unacceptable to corporations and shareholders, there may be the social forces and the technology for alternatives but not the ability commercialise them to the satisfaction of the current developers. Changes will be forced when resources are depleted.

Always throw-away?

No society will totally lack a make-and-mend attitude but does a supermarket react to the needs of the consumer or drive the consumer to shop in the way that reflects the industries that supply it.

Paul Simon Wilson

References

Herbert Marcuse [1898-1979], One Dimensional Man, Chapter 1: The New Forms of Control, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, [1964].

Vance Packard [1914-1996], The Status Seekers, Chapter 9: Shopping for Status, Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1962], originally published, McKay, [1959].