The Throw-Away Society

FINAL PAPER: The Throw-Away Society

As of now, the human kind is stuck in a “throwaway culture”.  In “Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis On Care For Our Common Home “, Pope Francis speaks about a “throw-away culture” where unwanted items as well as unwanted people are put to waste, scorned.  Pope Francis discusses waste, pollution, climate change and how it all affects the Earth in a harmful way. These actions are all part of the throw-away culture. “Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources” (Francis: 18). Humans consume in big quantity and it greatly affects them/us and the planet. How did we come to this? What is this culture doing to the environment exactly? How can we the human kind, set ourselves free from this destructive culture? Is it possible to derive away from this culture?

Consumerism rules the throw-away society. There is a problem of overconsumption. The way humans think is primarily about the present, not the future and not how the current actions affect the forthcoming years. Everything seems temporary. People strive for a life of abundance. There is a “decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society” (Francis: 32) due and “inequitable distribution and consumption of energy, services” (Francis: 33) and more. There is increased violence and there is a noticeable rise in “new forms of social aggression, drug trafficking, growing drug use by young people, and the loss of identity” (Francis: 33). Social adhesion and belonging is becoming increasingly difficult. Global inequality is very much a problem that Humans face. All of this because of the throw-away culture.  As a result, “the Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth” (Francis: 18). Pope Francis says that in this society, even human lives are seen as disposable. Sadly, anyone who is deemed unworthy can be put away to “waste”. Unworthy is often synonym of different in the throw-away culture. The elderly, less fortunate or people with disorders, syndromes or illnesses, are often put aside. According to Pope Francis the human kind adopted an attitude of defensiveness, marginalization, fear and indifference. The population’s view on immigrants for example is adverse and biased. All these negative traits that Humans adopted are not only harming the relationships between eachother, but they are also damaging the environment. “In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish. Industrial waste and chemical products utilized in cities and agricultural areas can lead to bioaccumulation in the organisms of the local population, even when levels of toxins in those places are low. Frequently no measures are taken until after people’s health has been irreversibly affected” (Francis: 18). The throw-away culture “affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish” (Francis: 17).  The negative values and the habits that shape the society is spread largely by media.  

As John Gillroy mentions in his text “Kantian Ethics and Environmental Policy Argument: Autonomy, Ecosystem Integrity and Our Duties to Nature”, conservation is not exploiting the natural environment for personal happiness. Gillroy explains that if the humankind exploits the reliability of the environment, eventually species will go extinct and be lost. Therefore this could lead to natural cycles and systems to fail and prevent natural growth. As a result, the humankind could potentially suffer from these poor decisions taken regarding the environment, and it lead to our own destruction. Hence why exploiting nature and taken part in the throw-away culture is detrimental. Gillroy says that with the humankind’s environmentally ethical conduct and values, species as well as the environment they are in, can be saved, maintained and kept wholesome. It is an endless cycle where humans care for the environment and in turn, humans are kept alive, just like Pope Francis’ cycle mentioned earlier in this text. It is a concept in which both the humankind and the environment we live in benefits from. Humans care for the environment, the relationships are bettered, the environment is improved and humans can continue to live without any fears.

As of now “we have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them” (Francis: 18). Thus the Human race is stuck in a broken cycle of consumption and waste with barely any reutilizing.  

To stop, reduce and prevent the damaging actions of the throw-away culture, the way humans view the city and design the cities needs to change. Right now, the city is viewed as a home however we humans do not necessarily treat it that way. We care for our space but that is all-- we do not care for the rest of the space around us outside the land we own. On a day-to-day basis it is easy to forget that cities are part of the environment and that everything that happens in cities has an impact on the environment. Pope Francis states that « the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all” and that “at the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life” (Francis: 18) meaning that each and every human needs to take action in order to steer away from the bad habits that shape the throw-away culture.  According to Byron Williston in Environmental Ethics for Canadians, the human population is on the rise, which consequently increases the population’s consumption (Willinston: 318). Consumption is one of the main components of the current throw-away society that Pope Francis says is dangerous and threatening to all. “More people consuming more resources inevitably affects, possibly to the breaking point, all kinds of natural goods and services: the soil, the climate, the water supply, wilderness spaces, viability of other species and the quality of forests and air” (Willinston: 318).  Consumption and consumerism also affects the climate and directly affects global warming. “Warming has effects on the carbon cycle. It creates a vicious circle which aggravates the situation even more, affecting the availability of essential resources like drinking water, energy and agricultural production in warmer regions, and leading to the extinction of part of the planet’s biodiversity” (Francis: 19). Elements essential for us to live are being threatened by yes nature itself, but mainly by the humankind and our actions just like Pope Francis is clearly explaining throughout his text. One day our cities and the planet may reach their carrying capacity, meaning the ‘’maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained indefinitely in a given physical place” (Willinston: 318). At that point, will there be enough natural goods and services to sustain the entire population? So many questions are left unanswered, however these questions may not even be essential if the Human kind counteracts the damages done by the throw-away society.