The idea of the throwaway society is that we have become a society that consumes a lot

of stuff and which throws away too many things. We have become a society that does not value
keeping things around and reusing them. Instead, we want to be able to throw things away
when they have stopped being convenient for us.

The idea of the throwaway society has been with us at least since the 1950s. At that
time, American companies started making things that were aimed at convenience and which
were essentially disposable. For example, they started making “TV dinners” which came on a
tray that could be thrown away after the food was eaten. That saved people the difficulty of
having to wash dishes.

This trend has accelerated since the 1950s. Now, many of the things we use are made
with the idea of “planned obsolescence.” In other words, the manufacturers know that the
goods will only last a relatively short while and that we will throw them away when they are no
longer good. Things that we now use, like mp3 players and computers, are relatively cheap.
Therefore, as they get old and wear out, we simply throw them away instead of paying to repair
them. This is in contrast to how things once were when there would be all sorts of repair shops
that would fix things for you so you would not have to throw them away.

The throwaway society is one where we value convenience more than frugality and
where we do not care how much we throw away.