They say americans generate 50% of the world's waste with 5% of its population. Not hard to see when you consider how much disposable stuff there is for impulse food and the like. But an old professor of mine said that that stuff doesn't even matter much in the scheme of things -- that the only REALLY BIG waste is in manufacturing, where a manufacturer may waste a lot of stuff in the process to save a few pennies on each item.
is there a problem with waste/consumption in the US?
- Thread starter dpopiz
- Start date
Look in your trash and see how much of it is just boxes that the stuff you actually wanted came inside.
Yep, we also overwork oursevles... We are the best that we put our minds too.. for instance a hundred years ago, starvation was a real issue for our poor. Now with american know how, we are able to feed the USA poor better than anyone else.. as a matter of fact, the highest rate of obessity belongs to our the poor...
I think it's due, at least in part, to the fact that most cheap food is high in calories and generally not very good for you.
dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
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On topic: yes, there is a problem with waste.
For example, people are addicted to the $30 office chair that they can buy at Walmart for their computer desk. Too bad that $30 office chair falls apart in 6 months, as pieces of plastic break and the back falls off. So every 6 months, it is back to the store for another $30 office chair. If they just bought a $200 office chair to begin with that lasts a lifetime, there wouldn't be a problem. So much waste for a temporary (and very short lived) economic gain. I've been through many, many cheap office chairs as I grew up, they all failed the same way.
Apply that office chair idea to most of what we used to buy that was permanent but which is now disposable.
For example, people are addicted to the $30 office chair that they can buy at Walmart for their computer desk. Too bad that $30 office chair falls apart in 6 months, as pieces of plastic break and the back falls off. So every 6 months, it is back to the store for another $30 office chair. If they just bought a $200 office chair to begin with that lasts a lifetime, there wouldn't be a problem. So much waste for a temporary (and very short lived) economic gain. I've been through many, many cheap office chairs as I grew up, they all failed the same way.
Apply that office chair idea to most of what we used to buy that was permanent but which is now disposable.
I agree with notfred. A box of Mac and Cheese is high in calories, tons of fat, has nearly nothing of nutritional value, but it costs 25 cents. So what do the poor buy? A $1 chunk of fresh broccoli or a $1 apple that feeds one person for half a meal or a 25 cent box of Mac and Cheese that feeds four kids for a whole meal?
The cheaper food is also usually the one with most fat content. For example take hamberger. The ones avalible at the store im at are(lean/fat ratio) 78/22, 85/15, 91/9 and 94/6. That is also the cost per pound order. the most fat is the cheapest and the leanest is the most expensive. Wander around the grocery store, it is like that everywhere. The more processes and less healthy a product is the cheaper it is(usually, there are lots of exceptions of course, but not really on staples which are what the poor are buying)
It doesn't matter. The aim of humanity is to breed and consume as much and as fast as possible, until we die in our own excrement, like bacteria.
look at it this way: if you live in a house and have (and need) the standard sized automatic-pickup garbage can, you're throwing away about triple your body's volume in trash every single week (not counting recycling and yard waste). personally i rarely filled my tiny-sized can when i lived where i was responsible for my own trash cans.
eplebnista
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Queasy
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The USA also has the world's largest GDP. So, no. We probably don't create anymore waste (probably even less considering environmental regulations these days) than what we produce in terms of useful goods and services for the rest of the world.
That's probably why proportions are used to compare things and not actual numbers. We're still higher than most others in the developed world.
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