THROWAWAY SOCIETY

I helped neighbour Rod yesterday. We moved a trailer load of 'rubbish' from his son's garage to the tip. His son, wife and three kids are moving from rented accommodation to live with her mother and two sisters in a three bedroom house. They have converted a garage into a fourth bedroom and bought a caravan which will be parked next to the garage and used as extra sleeping accomodation. Needless to say it will be crowded but there will be huge savings on rent and outgoings.

When I said before that we moved 'rubbish' I was quite surprised to see that what was packed into many, many black plastic bags and boxes wasn't in fact what I would call rubbish but was toys, food items (unopened bags of potato chips, full bottles of soft drinks etc), bits of furniture, unused fireworks (which I said the tip would not take), CD holders - all sorts of useful items that could have been given to charity or recycled properly. I bit my tongue and didn't comment, instead just helped toss it all into my caged trailer that I lent for the job.

In the garage also was a big stack of boxes of all shapes and sizes. The son and his wife hadn't thought to flatten these and put out for roadside collection so my friend gave him a lecture about recycling. It's unbelievable that there are people who don't have a clue about this. I guess we take it for granted that everyone knows what to do. The thing that I noticed though was the type of boxes there were. There were X-Box, Play station, Mobile phone, Apple items, expensive toys - all sorts of top shelf items that these people had recently bought.

My neighbours son and his wife are not wealthy. They are in fact on the breadline. He works at minimal wage at a local supermarket. She works part-time, also on minimal wage as a nurse-helper.
They have three children under seven and are expecting another one. They have no idea of saving and their spending is out of control. There is no way that they will ever be able to take out a mortgage and 'get on the property ladder'. They are stuck in a rut but .... they still seem to want to live like kings by buying for their kids and themselves all of the shiny gadgets that are offered. How they manage to do this I don't know - maybe on credit or loans from instant finance companies.


OK, it's their life and what they do with their money is their concern but, and this is what this post is about, my concern is about the cavalier attitude that they have to their possessions. Because they needed to downsize and move into her mother's house they had to get rid of stuff. No thought was given to selling items on Trade Me, Facebook or other sites or to have a garage sale. All unwanted items were just packed up for the tip. They didn't even consider giving it away to Women's Refuge, The Salvation army, the local marae  or any other charity organisations. No. It was unwanted or unneeded so out it goes.

I guess that I come from a different generation that places higher value on things. We didn't get fancy toys, electronics and communication devices when we were young. Whatever we got we had to save for first and buy with cash. I also used to go to the tip - to get things to bring home.

I despair of this throwaway society we have today.