Many people say that we have developed into a ‘throw-away society’, because we are filling up our environment with so many plastic bags and rubbish that we cannot fully dispose. It is true that ever-increasing waste produced from human activities is taking a heavy toll on the environment. In my opinion, an increasingly high consumption of goods is the main factor contributing to this trend.
With people eating and using more, the amount of rubbish generated from the packaging of various commodities is becoming exceedingly harmful for our environment. What makes the situation worse is our tendency to use something once and throw it away. A typical example would be single-use plastic bags. The unrestricted use of these bags has resulted in the prevalence of plastic garbage that cannot be thoroughly degraded. They eventually produce greenhouse gases that deplete Earth’s ozone layer.
In order to solve this problem, a few measures could be effective. Firstly, it would greatly help if people minimised the consumption of products, which have a short shelf life. People should be encouraged to spend money on items that are more durable, rather than constantly replacing things. This decrease in consumption will contribute to reducing the production of these items. I feel that recycling and reusing waste items would assist in alleviating this problem. Instead of throwing away or disposing unwanted items, it would be beneficial to the environment if people reused some products. For instance, old t-shirts could be used as cleaning cloths and empty cans could be used as simple vases or pen holders.
A ‘throw-away society’ is the result of the soaring amount of goods we think we need every day. If we do not take proper measures promptly, this trend would likely cause more serious problems to the environment and people’s lives.
- The reader is a student based in Dubai
