In many countries today people are living in a ‘throw-away society’, where things are used in a short time and then thrown away. What are its causes? What are its problems?

It is true that people tend to throw away things that are only used once or for a very short period. Several factors are believed to drive this trend, which leads to concerning issues.

Convenience is visible when we use one-time only product. There is no cleaning required like maintaining durable goods for longer service life, which is time consuming and white collar workers usually do not have that much time to do it. This kind of products come out with lower price. For example, the plastic shopping bag only cost several cents and it is much cheaper than those made of canvas. The advancing marketing advertisements keep reminding consumers that it is the time to upgrade products, which also accelerate old items' dumping rate.

Some severe problems have been caused by throw-away behaviors. The environment has been under extreme pressure from the huge amount of wastes because of human beings. It takes thousands of years to degrade the plastics and electronic devices that we put back to the land. Resources on the earth are limited, and if we keep buying the non-necessities, we only run out of resources faster. When our shopping behaviors are totally controlled by commercials which aim to earn as much money as possible, we may lose the objectivity to decide what we really need in the real life.

In conclusion, convenient lifestyle drives the 'throw-away' society, which has brought negative impacts on the environment, resources, and our lifestyle.