With the rise of social media and e-commerce, consumers now have access to millions of goods within minutes, driving the pace of consumption with dopamine-based impulsive buying. Platforms like Amazon, Temu, and Shein prioritize fast, trendy, and cheap products over long-lasting quality, fueling a mindset where items are seen as disposable trends with no long term use. This mindset has only increased throwaway culture, where items are discarded after only a few uses. From glossy magazines to plastic packaging, we are bombarded by goods not meant to last more than a few uses, leading to waste, pollution, and emissions that harm the environment.
It is estimated that about 45% of greenhouse gas emissions are created by manufacturing goods. Manufacturing only makes up only one portion of the total emissions of an item. At every step of the process—packaging and shipping—there is an associated emissions footprint. For instance, freight transportation makes up about 11% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Each consumer item created consumes natural resources with significant environmental cost. Take magazines and similar disposable paper products, which cause deforestation amounting to an area the size of the Netherlands every year. Deforestation can significantly affect wildlife and biodiversity as a huge amount of insects, birds, mammals, and plants have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to depend on forests. Deforestation also releases carbon into the atmosphere because trees release the carbon dioxide they sequester when they are cut down and burned to make pulp to create paper.
68% of goods thrown away in the United States are not able to be recycled, overwhelming landfills and the environment with waste. Many of these goods are incinerated, releasing toxic chemicals into the air or are exported to developing countries with less-robust waste management systems that cannot deal with the magnitude of waste exported.
Plastic waste has especially insidious effects as it takes hundreds of years for it to biodegrade. Even then, many plastics biodegrade into undetectable microplastics that leach into drinking water and human organs.
With the negative effects of throwaway culture on the environment, it is important that we reduce our consumption and learn to reuse old goods to keep them out of landfills and diminish the associated greenhouse gas and resource cost of buying new goods. Through a combination of upcycling as well as buying long-lasting sustainable products, you can be part of the widespread change needed for a more sustainable consumer system.
https://www.nrdc.org/bio/daniel-rosenberg/burned-why-waste-incineration-harmful
https://repurpose.global/blog/post/us-waste-exporting-explained
https://www.epa.gov/circulareconomy/america-recycles-day
https://paperontherocks.com/2018/11/28/environmental-impact-of-deforestation/
https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/freight-transportation
https://environment.co/consumerism-and-the-environment/
https://earth.org/online-shopping-and-its-environmental-impact/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/12/1081129/plastic-recycling-climate-change-microplastics/
https://earth.org/throwaway-culture-is-drowning-us-in-waste/