18.Do we have a throw-away society?

 Fifty years ago, not much was being thrown away. Almost everything had a considerably longer life span than that ubiquitous plastic bag holding our groceries has today. What led us to this place of having and wanting so much stuff? Stuff that we literally don't know what to do with or where to put when we're done with it.As time has gone through the years,Company advertisement implied that a change in style meant progress in capitalism. Growth in America was being driven by a new sense of convenience and disposability. Paper plates and cups, frozen foods, TV dinners, foil and plastic pouches, aerosol cans, and squeezable tubes were the way of the future, bringing a new convenience and ease to everyone's lifestyle—especially the housewife's. Packaging became the new billboard for marketers inside the supermarket. Why spend time cleaning pots and pans and dishes when you can toss it all away in the garbage when you're done? Easily disposable items offered a new freedom that was quickly linked to the notion of abundance. From then on, changes in styles and new technologies gave way to new and improved products that were increasingly affordable to more people. "Out with the old and in with the new" became in. Once it was put onto the curb as garbage, we no longer had to think about it. It was out of sight and out of mind. Abundance and waste soon became synonymous with the American way of life. More choices, more conveniences, and with the invention of credit cards more accessible money made Americans very conspicuous consumers. With only 5 percent of the global population, the U.S. consumes a whoppinghen we no longer need or want something, what do we do with it? Well, statistics show that the average American discards about six pounds of trash per day. That is more than 200 million tons per year. Where is all this garbage going? About 57 percent of all our trash is buried in landfills. 30 percent of the planet's resources and churns out 30 percent of its wastes.
There is hardly any land left on which to place landfills,so over time we began to Reduce,Reuse,and Recycle.It saves our landfills and saves our lives as we recycle more and more.From the bottom up, recycling has begun to change the nature of our industrial system. Recycling has become in this time frame a permanent part of US daily life. More people recycle every day at home, school and work than vote regularly in elections. The impact has been dramatic.