The New Throw-Away Culture And How It Affects Us.

The current world is all about consumerism

Throw away culture

Yes! Throw away! No need to keep things and restore them. The Japanese art of Kintsugi is so rare. The Indian art of Jugad is almost forgotten as the new culture of throw-away revolves around us.

I was cutting an apple and the knife was not sharp enough. I bought the best quality one but what happened to it suddenly?

I thought to myself. What not get the knife sharpened? Earlier there were so many hawkers on the roads calling out for sharpening knives. I went to my local market and they told me there were no knife sharpeners anymore.

“Madam throw this away and get a new one,” said the shopkeeper. “I will give you a much better quality”.

“This is new too,” I said. What shall I do with this?

“Mam, what will you do with this? It is useless.”

I was disappointed. I asked several people what I could do with the knives. The answer was the same just buy another.

It was such a shame that a new knife was useless. At home, my house helper also told me to throw away the knife. I asked her if she would like to take it but she flatly refused.

Technology change throwaways

In my home, there are drawers filled with CDs and cassettes. What do I do with them?

My husband had collected in hundreds. I kept telling him not to buy more but he kept on increasing his collection.

Now it is obsolete. We have small pen drives of mini size that we use in our cars and our music systems at home. There is no outlet for putting in a CD or a cassette anymore.

Now we do not know what to do with them. I did suggest that we should dump them but he says it would break his heart to lose them. Now it is catching dust and we are cleaning it all the time and it just lies around.

The throwaway culture is operative and we should just throw it away.

Throw or repair?

In India, we had the culture of getting all our gadgets repaired. We were able to find experts who knew the art of repair. Today if something happens to our gadgets there is no one to repair them. Moreover, even parts of the product are not available.

I have an LG fridge. The handle broke three years ago. We tried our level best but could not find a handle to replace it. The company sent its representative to help us. Sadly enough they said that the part was not available any longer.

Replace and buy a new fridge. Just throw this one out or use it without the handle. So sad, we don’t need a new fridge. It is working absolutely fine but we are told to buy a new one only because the fridge is 5 years old and beyond three years we cannot find parts.

Anyhow we got no help so we went to a hardware store and decided to buy a gum called MSeal which would hold the handle and then we tied a plastic rope around it to strengthen it.

This lasted us for three years and then it broke again. I again appealed to customer care and asked them to replace the handle with any handle of any model. There was a flat refusal to my request.

“Madam your fridge is 7 years old and no other handle of any other fridge will fit your fridge.”

“My fridge is perfectly fine. My father had only one fridge all his life it lasted him,” I said.

“Oh, mam gone are the times. Just buy a new fridge.”

I was obstinate and decided I would repair it again. You can see the repaired piece. It is working to full capacity.

Don’t you think that it is foolish to invest in a new fridge when it is working in perfect order?

I have no complaints about my fridge.

What are the takeaways?

What are your thoughts? I feel that is a waste to throw away things. It is happening all over the world. No sooner do the new products come into the market than the old get obsolete although they are not really old

💥We cannot throw away things

This throw-away culture has to stop. What do you say? We cannot be throwing away laptops, televisions, fridges, washing machines, or other products that are in perfect order just because one little part which is actually an addendum to the whole fridge is not available. A company should be responsible to its customers.

💥The parts should be replaceable

It should be mandatory for companies to keep a stock of small parts that are necessary for using a fridge or other gadgets like TVs, air conditioners, or even a washing machine although they have no part in the running of the machine. For a replaceable 20$ part, you have to spend 700–1000 dollars to buy a new product when it is running well.

💥Dumping harms the environment.

Dumping is harmful to the environment. So much waste of products that are still useful but have to be thrown away. It is putting pressure on the earth and sustainability. It brings about compulsive communism

To wrap up

We must all rethink. Something must be done for products that we buy and they are not old or obsolete enough to throw it away as it is still in running condition and maintenance is being constantly monitored. If companies can take money for yearly maintenance contracts they should also think of using old products through some technique.

Throwaway culture is highly not friendly for the economy. We are overloading our planet with unwanted junk. a solution is to somehow reuse or recycle the product or try to repair your own products if they can be done.

©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2023. To get my stories in your inbox, you may subscribe to my content here. You may connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, or via email: [email protected]