TMA02: “Rubbish has no value “

In this essay i want to discuss and analyse rubbish and it’s value. Rubbish has been described as something with no value, however value is a complex term and does not complete a clear picture of rubbish. To define rubbish clearly I want to discuss the relationship between rising affluence and consumer society and how they have produced more rubbish. Also what rubbish means to different people and who are the winners and losers in the mass generation of rubbish. I will also look at the sustainability of affluent societies, its effect of the environment and why negative externalities should be but are often not considered in the valuation of goods. Using Thompsons theory of rubbish(1979) and Baumans
So like the old saying what is one man’s trash is another man’s gold. Recycling increased from 1 % in 83/84 to 31% in 06/07 per person per year in the UK . ( Defra, 2007, Table 4 , cited in Brown, 2009 , p. 117 )A modern example is the mobile phone say an older model that is relatively worthless, there are ads on tv like Mazuma mobie with it’s slogan “ Money for your old phone , Mazuma mobile.com “ Obviously this firm is able to succeed in a viable business by providing a service of buying old broken mobile phones. We at home cannot dispose of them in a bin legally and they would be left around otherwise so this is a win win situation for Mazuma and the consumer. In this example we see how something is worth something and nothing at the same time. Thompson’s theory categorizes objects in three sections as follows. Objects planned for ordinary use have transient value as the value tends to drop over time, e.g mobile phone. Then a category of virtually zero value e.g a broken mobile phone and lastly a durable category whose value increases over time e.g art , jewellery and collectors items. ( Thompson , cited in Brown, 2009, p. 122 ) Thompsons theory shows how an item can sometimes move from a transient value through zero value and move onto to become a durable value item. This shows how something can turn to rubbish or zero value and come out the other side over time to a valuable (durable) item which is not considered rubbish. E.g maybe a painting