Rubbish Has No Value
Essay Plan
• Introduction, explaining what rubbish is? Explaining what assignment is about.
• One - wastefulness and affluence, how this affects rubbish, consumer society
• Two - Thompsons Theory, recycling (one man’s trash is another man’s treasure), Jordan’s Junk art.
• Three – Stevegraphs/supply & Demand
• Four – environment and rubbish
• Conclusion, do not introduce any new material!! Sum essay up. Remember word count and references.
‘Rubbish has no value’. Identify the arguments for and against this view.
It can be argued that rubbish is a thing that has no worth; it is what nobody wants, it is disvalued, so it is worthless and has zero value (Brown, 2009, p105). ‘Value’ can be a complex term. Items have value because people value them. What is rubbish to one person may have value to another. Rubbish is seems can be quite contradictory! Throughout this essay it will be argued whether rubbish does in fact have no value. Your immediate thoughts on rubbish might be something straight forward like an empty crisp packet, you have eaten the crisps inside so now the packet is surplus to requirements and has no more use; it is now rubbish has no value and will be disposed of. But rubbish covers more than just this. There is also wasting, uneaten food is wasted, televisions left on standby is wasted electricity.
Rubbish is the invisible part of consumption, the growth of mass consumption due to rising affluence and prosperity has contributed to the increase of rubbished produced. The rise in disposable income has allowed us to buy goods easier than ever before, this in turn has caused a huge rise in the manufacturing of consumer goods. We are living in a consumer society, it is now cheaper to replace goods rather than repair, and we have become a throwaway society. In 1983/84 the amount of household rubbish per person was 397 kg, in 2006/07 this increased to 508kg (Brown, 2009, p107). With this rise, the
• Introduction, explaining what rubbish is? Explaining what assignment is about.
• One - wastefulness and affluence, how this affects rubbish, consumer society
• Two - Thompsons Theory, recycling (one man’s trash is another man’s treasure), Jordan’s Junk art.
• Three – Stevegraphs/supply & Demand
• Four – environment and rubbish
• Conclusion, do not introduce any new material!! Sum essay up. Remember word count and references.
‘Rubbish has no value’. Identify the arguments for and against this view.
It can be argued that rubbish is a thing that has no worth; it is what nobody wants, it is disvalued, so it is worthless and has zero value (Brown, 2009, p105). ‘Value’ can be a complex term. Items have value because people value them. What is rubbish to one person may have value to another. Rubbish is seems can be quite contradictory! Throughout this essay it will be argued whether rubbish does in fact have no value. Your immediate thoughts on rubbish might be something straight forward like an empty crisp packet, you have eaten the crisps inside so now the packet is surplus to requirements and has no more use; it is now rubbish has no value and will be disposed of. But rubbish covers more than just this. There is also wasting, uneaten food is wasted, televisions left on standby is wasted electricity.
Rubbish is the invisible part of consumption, the growth of mass consumption due to rising affluence and prosperity has contributed to the increase of rubbished produced. The rise in disposable income has allowed us to buy goods easier than ever before, this in turn has caused a huge rise in the manufacturing of consumer goods. We are living in a consumer society, it is now cheaper to replace goods rather than repair, and we have become a throwaway society. In 1983/84 the amount of household rubbish per person was 397 kg, in 2006/07 this increased to 508kg (Brown, 2009, p107). With this rise, the
References: Brown, V. (2009) ‘Rubbish society: affluence, waste and values’, in Taylor, S., Hinchcliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S. (eds) Making Social lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Self –Reflection I found this topic not very stimulating, and therefore struggle to get started with the essay and almost resented having to do it. But I persevered and have written an essay which won’t win any prizes but will hopefully gain a pass.