Nikki Marsden – F3076405 – DD102 – TMA03

Nikki Marsden PI - F3076405 TMA03

Part 1 – Essay plan

Intro -

 Explain consumer society (pg121) and throwaway society (pg 225).

 Tell the reader what I aim to convey with my essay – consumerism is freedom,
power and happiness – pg 234
1 - Consumption has let people build a picture of themselves

 Higher standards of living = higher/Excessive consumption.

 More choice – products designed to last a shorter time.
 Advances in technology.
 Become richer – spend more money and upgrade products regularly.
 Pay for luxuries more than necessities (pg123, 234)
 Packaging comes on this product
 Previous product becoming obsolete.
 Eg – ONS survey in 1957 42 per cent spending was food, drink and tobacco and by
2011 only 13 per cent was pg 123
 pg 235 – disposable income has risen by almost 2.5x from 1970 to 2009
2 – Waste has risen but so too has recycling –

 fig8.1 page 230 1991/2, 2 or 3% was recycled, 2009-10 40% -

 although rising affluence is linked with waste, as too is greater recycling – pg 237
 WRAP funded by UK government to encourage people to recycle and cut wastage
 More waste coming from producers as well i.e supermarkets
4 - Supermarkets waste more.

 E.g – salads with Tesco – 68% wasted and roughly same as is through production and
consumers.
 Rejections of foods for not being the right shape.
 Promotional of organisational change to lower waste.
 Alan Warde – targeting the rich will give us a better chance of change. Pg 238
 Tesco report – changes to promotional strategies so that people aren’t buying for
the sake of having another bag for free, resealable bags for lettuce encourage people
to top up – twin packs one now one later introduced encourage people to think what
can be eaten now. Pg 239
5 – consumer awareness

 importance of individual changes as well as organisational ones – pg 240.

 Shopping as a creative/controlled behaviour
6 – Conclude – There is evidence that more waste is being created, much of this is shaped by
external factors encouraging specific human behaviours while shopping

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 Nikki Marsden – F3076405 – DD102 – TMA03

Part 2 – Essay
When living in a society where industries encourage more consumption and people can
change their identities through what, and how much, they consume, it seems inevitable that
there would also be more waste. As people are so easily discarding the part of themselves
that they replaced or are coerced into buying something newer and better so the problem
of waste grows. Many social scientists believe we are now living in a Consumer Society (The
open university, 2014, p. 119) and this essay will focus on the argument that this Society has
created waste through forming a throwaway society using information sourced from course
materials from The Open University (2014).
Throwaway societies are explained by Rajiv Prabhakar (2014, p225 - 229) as those in which
people are used to the idea of throwing items away. Prabhakar goes on to explain that
although we may feel we can easily identify waste, the social meaning of it has changed
throughout time and can differ throughout society. An example of this could be old items
that were assumed to be worthless at that time but have since become collectors’ items,
such as medieval coins or collectable comics.
To contrast this, what was once deemed unattainable can now be an everyday object that
people feel they need to have the newest version of in order to fit in with the Consumer
Society, take mobile phones for an example, once only owned by the richest and now a
general household item that people must own to feel a valid member of society. A survey by
ONS shows us that in 1957 42 per cent of spending was on food, drink and tobacco; by 2011
only 13 per cent was the same, concreting the idea that people have bought into a
Consumer Society (2014, p. 123). This information shows us that either people are so
seduced by this Consumer Society that they are willing to give up the necessities of life to fit
in, or that there is the income available for people to choose to live in luxury now.
Whichever side of the coin people find themselves; the one common ground is that people
are producing more waste.
The idea of being ‘Seduced’ or ‘Repressed’ was explored by Zygmunt Bauman (2014, p. 125),
it is the thought that in a Consumer Society one is either an active participant who is able to
effectively consume and fit in with society, thus being seduced by it, or that they are
somewhat restricted in their ability to engage in this society, whether it be due to money,
disability, or because they simply do not wish to engage in it, thus being repressed. Within
these labels there are positive and negative connotations attached, it is deemed more
positive if you have the ability to consume as you are positively engaging in society.
Consumption has the ability for people to build a picture of themselves that they want
others to see, the products they purchase become an extension of themselves (2014,
p.139). This can be shaped through advertisements of certain products which may have
celebrities’ endorsements to make us more likely to buy it, or by shops playing specific
music’s to enhance a feeling while in their store making us more, or in some cases less, likely
to buy their produce. In 2009, society had seen an increase in disposable income of almost
two and a half times compared to 1970 (2014, p. 235). This increase of income spurs on an

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 Nikki Marsden – F3076405 – DD102 – TMA03

excessive amount of consumption and waste; as the standards of living rise, we also see that
there are more choices, advances in technology and in the design of products to fail sooner
and thus be replaced faster leading to yet more waste through disposal of older objects and
the packaging that comes along with newer items.
As is shown in Figure 8.1 (2014, p230), it is clear that waste has risen, and so too has the
recycling of this waste, going from 2 or 3% in 1991/2 all the way to 40% in 2009/10.
Although the rising standards of living are linked to waste, so too are the rising standards of
recycling (2014, pg 237). Much of this waste is through items purchased, such as food
waste. However, it is not simply the individual people wrapped up in the Consumer Society
that are to blame for this waste, there is waste from much bigger sources such as
Supermarkets too.
Supermarkets like Tesco account for a lot of waste, highlighted in The Tesco report on food
waste 17 per cent of bagged salad is lost in the field, 15 per cent in processing and 1 per
cent in retail (2014, p.231). This 33 per cent of wastage is almost matched by consumers,
meaning that by focusing on consumers only half of the waste problem is being considered.
There is also waste in the format of food not being the right shape and being discarded due
to the idea that consumers will not purchase this as it does not look right.
Alan Ward suggests that by targeting the richer companies there will be a better chance of
change as they have the best capacity in which to make an environmental difference (2014,
p.238). The Tesco report on food waste went on to highlight ways in which they could
reduce their waste, specifically in relation to the salad bags. The changes included using
better promotional strategies so that people were not buying simply for the sake of having
another bag for free and instead using resealable bags for lettuce in order to encourage
people to top up and twin packs with an item ready to use and another that would be ready
later, which also would encourage people to think about the dates on their foods.
Consumer awareness is important for individual changes as well as organisational ones,
however, organisations can take steps to nudge individuals toward a less wasteful society as
is shown by the information gathered by the Edinburgh Council waste strategy plan (2014,
p.243). Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein explained that by using behavioural nudges it is
possible to shape how people behave, for example by implementing fines for negative
behaviours or rewards for positive behaviours. In relation to the waste strategy plan the
outcome of these nudges showed that when using behavioural nudges food recycling
increased by 2.8% (2014, p. 252). This shows that individuals can be persuaded by
organisations to help recycle their ever-growing waste that has been ultimately created by
the organisations which are encouraging the Consumer Society to consume more.
To conclude this essay, there is clear evidence that as a Consumer Society we are
encouraged to consume more to enhance our personalities and feel as though we fit in with
the crowd and positively contribute to society. This encouragement leads us to waste more
as we discard packaging and items that are deemed obsolete or no longer popular. It also
leads to organisations wasting more as they discard items, such as the ones they think the
public will not find attractive enough.

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 Nikki Marsden – F3076405 – DD102 – TMA03

Word count – 1177

References
Hetherington, K. and Havard, C. (2014) ‘Consumer society? Identity and lifestyle’, in Allen, J. and
Blakeley, G. (eds) Understanding Social Lives, Part 1, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Prabhakar, R. (2014) ‘Throwaway society? Waste and recycling’, in Allen, J. and Blakeley, G.
(eds) Understanding Social Lives, Part 1, Milton Keynes, The Open University.

Part 3 – Self-reflection
The first part of my feedback that I focused on improving was that of the introduction not relating
to the rest of the essay, I used the advice to try and home in on what I wanted to explore in the
essay so that I had a clear introduction that was on the topic. I then tried to focus more on my
key ideas so that I was getting as much information around that idea before moving on to the
next and to try and discourage adding information that was not necessary at that point.

Word count - 95