Throw away society

Published on June 15, 2004 By KarmaGirl In Misc

I grew up with pack rat instincts. I reuse stuff when I can, and I recycle what I can't because garbage seems like such a waste. (We only have 3/4 of a bag of garbage a week that we throw out from our household).

However, it's hard. Everything in todays world is throw away. I caught myself doing this because I like to save money.....wait...what was that I just said? Yep, it's true. To save money, you end up throwing more things out in todays world.

Things aren't meant to last anymore. Just talk to an engineer from a car company. They have meetings discussing if a part will make it through warranty or not. Not if the part will last 100,000 miles, but if it will make it 36,000. No value at all. Try fixing that car when it starts breaking. Unless you are a mechanic, it's cheaper to lease a new car than to keep fixing the old one.

But, there was a thing that just happened to me that swept me into the throw away world. My watch. The battery died. Most watch batteries live about 2 years. My watch was 3 years old and on its second battery and the battery died. The jewelry store told me that the watch may be going bad, or it may have been a bad battery. To change the battery, it would cost $10.00 + tax. I would have to have it done in the jewelery store because I wear waterproof watches (self defense- I forget to remove them in the shower) so they use a special tool to remove and reattach the back. I decided to think about it and see how much a new watch would cost since that one may just eat batteries. So, I went to Target. (Pronounce it as Tarshay) and looked around. I found a waterproof watch that was originally $19.95 on sale for $8.95. So, I bought it. Why replace the batter for $10.00 on an iffy watch if I could buy a new watch for less?

Original watch $75 + $10 battery = $85 for 3 years (band was getting bad on it, too) new watch: $9 for probably 2 years. Hmmm......

The other "throw away" that I see is todays cars (as I mentioned above). I recently bought a 1970 Karmann Ghia (yes, an article will show up soon about it). It's amazing how simple everything is in it and how *thick* the metal is on it. You can actually fix it! The "German Engineering" leaves a bit to be desired (who had the bright idea of putting the fuel filter *after* the fuel pump, anyway?) but everything is simple, fairly well made, and has survived for 34 years. Do you think that the 2004 cars will still be around in 2038? I'm not thinking so......

Comments

Emoticon Man

on Jun 15, 2004

My take on all of this? I work at a convenience store. We sell lidded coffee cups for about $4 or $5 bucks plus tax, with refills costing 79 cents. However, to fill a new, "plastic" (well, it's not really plastic, but I don't know what it's made out of, so I'll just stick with that) cup costs between 99 cents and a buck 29. Yet people will insist on getting one of the new cups every day despite that a "permanent" cup would pay for itself in, let's say a month. So it's not only costing them more, but it's adding that much more garbage to the environment. It's beyond my understanding why.

mikimouse

on Jun 15, 2004

yeah most of society is wasteful. Especially the manufacturing industry. Long ago they built things to last, and when they stopped working you fixed it. It's a replacement society we live in.

KarmaGirl

on Jun 16, 2004

So it's not only costing them more, but it's adding that much more garbage to the environment. It's beyond my understanding why.

People don't care. People throw out everything. I was watching a show on TV on a home improvement network. They were helping this girl organize her room. I wanted to scream when they put all her unneeded clothes, put them in a garbage bag, and showed them putting it at the curb. WHY? Donation places will come to your house and pick up stuff like that! So very, very wasteful.

I have a regular plastic tumbler for water at work. Most everyone else (except the girl who works by me) use the throw away plastic cups. Of course, people also use styrofoam cups here instead of the regular mugs that we have (many of which I brought in) because they don't want to wash them after they use them.

JillUser

on Jun 16, 2004

I know what you mean about people throwing clothes away. We see amazing stuff on the curb all the time. Like you said, donation places will come pick it up. All you have to do is call and wait for them to come.

When it comes to clothes A) I still have a lot of clothes I had in Middle school since I reached my adult height in 7th grade If something is totally trashed, I use it as cleaning rags C) If there is something that is still nice but I don't wear it or it doesn't fit I first see if anyone in the family wants it and if they don't, I call Purple Heart, Salvation Army or Association for the Blind. They all pick stuff up in our area. Or I will drop it off if I am going to be near one of their locations.

Why is that so hard? Why do people just mindlessly stick stuff in the garbage and put it to the curb? I did a term paper on waste management in high school and went to a couple of conferences discussing landfills and incineration plants. There really aren't any good options for disposing of trash. That is why we should all recycle in every way we can.

Good article!

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