What is rubbish? Free Essay Example

Introduction

It is commonly defined as a thing that has no worth, something nobody wants, disvalued and worthless, therefore equalling no value. This is a complex question to answer as there are many types of ‘Rubbish’, and defining exactly what can be classed as rubbish, as a widely known quote states ‘one person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure’. There are many factors to consider when discussing rubbish, and if it has ‘no value’.

‘Value’ can mean many things

Value is also very complex as the word ‘value’ can mean many things.

Is it that we need to re-think and re-name the tern ‘rubbish’? The following essay is going to identify the arguments for and against the view that ‘Rubbish has no value’, drawing on evidence collected, including Thompsons (rubbish theory 1979). ‘Rubbish has no value’ let’s begin by defining what the term ‘value’ means.

There are many uses of the word ‘value’ aesthetic value (Brown, 2009, p. 30) is something that has a useful ‘value’ something that may be cheap or practical, and even though it may add something in weight, cost and time it is something that people are usually interested in, over the years there have been a greater need for practical appliances as more women are going back to work or just merely wanting to make household chores easier, leading to economic value, which is a market model and is used as a supply and demand, and conspicuous consumption (Hetherington, 2009 p.

1) is meant not to satisfy a physical need, but rather a psychological craving for status and self esteem, this term was used by Veblen (1899) and as there is much more of a demand for consumption, this then results in more packaging, leading to more rubbish.

Thompsons theory

Thompsons (Rubbish theory 1979) looked at how rubbish could pass through different categories, in the UK and Globally? looked at 3 different categories of rubbish (Brown 2009, p. 22 ), transient, in use but falling value, rubbish, items that have no value and durable, items that gain value over time due to rarity suggesting that items can move from ‘transient’ to ‘durable’. Thompson uses the Stevengraph paintings (Brown, 2009, p. 130) as an example of this process, showing that the Stevengraph paintings went through this transition, when in fact Thompson was saying that the paintings would have had to have been rubbish at some point, but with the Stevengraph’s they were kept in a decent condition for a hundred years.

So in this case, for Thompsons theory to work then something would have to be declared as ‘rubbish’ and that has not happened with these paintings as the paintings have been valued and looked after by someone, so therefore showing they held either financial or emotional value to someone and was therefore never actually ‘rubbish’.

This could show that ‘rubbish’ has value if it is not actually declared as ‘rubbish’ the same as when items are sold on or given away then they have value to someone, to declare that ‘rubbish has no value’ this can only be when an item is no longer of any use to anybody and cannot be recycled, sold, re-used or hold any worth at all so therefore has zero value, and then has negative value as it has to be disposed of appropriately.

Thompson’s theory (Brown, 2009, p. 122) was more about the combination of plentiful supply and lack of demand, using Market value, and the evaluation of collectors, to support his theory rather than defining ‘rubbish’ (Brown, 2009, p. 126) It has been said that we are now considered to live in a consumer society instead of an industrial society (Bauman, cited in Hetherington, 2009 p. 5) where consumption is about more than purchasing goods to satisfy basic needs, such as food and clothing, it is an activity that people take part in to establish themselves as individuals, as well as defining themselves within certain social groups, this has shown an increase in rubbish as more items are needed.

Overall amount of rubbish

Although in the UK alone only 7% of the overall amount of rubbish is household rubbish (Staples et al. , 2009, p. 24), equalling to 434 million tonnes a year, (Brown, 2009, p. 34)and with recycling increasing and other ways that we dispose of our rubbish now, like EBay, charity shops, handing down to family and friends and also there are now buy and sell sites on face book, showing that recycling and other ways of using items that people do not want are increasing, but is this enough? This then leads on to an environmental issue with ‘Rubbish’ and the ways in which it is disposed of, as landfills are nearly full in the UK and the incineration of waste leads to increased pollution (Staples et al. 2009 p. 24).

Rubbish has value in many ways when considering the disposal of it, as many things can be recycled, fixed and parts used for other things. As complete disposal of rubbish is hard to achieve, it can get moved around the UK, (Brown 2009, p. 135) and it can also be shipped off and sold to other countries that may have a use for it, therefore still having value.

The dustbin of Europe

In Europe the UK is known as the dustbin of Europe (Brown 2009 p. 35) we can see the atmosphere as having a zero price (Hinchliffe, 2009, p. 150) we are tending to pump polluted air into the atmosphere instead of using and alternative method of disposal, and although consumption is increasing it is imperative that proper disposal of our ‘rubbish’ is promoted and children are taught the importance of recycling and methods of disposal. Vivienne Brown asks the question ‘Are current levels of mass consumption, in the UK and globally sustainable? ‘Rubbish society’, 2009)

Rubbish can also have a negative value for society because of the costs that may incur. In order for us to be a sustainable country we have to have methods of proper disposal alongside the rates of consumption and packaging. The way society labels rubbish would help answer the question ‘Rubbish has no value’ because if we define what ‘rubbish is and if you look up ‘rubbish’ in the Collins dictionary it is defined as ‘worthless, useless, or an unwanted matter.

If we are going to define ‘rubbish’ as something that we no longer want or need, but can re-sale or can be re-used by somebody, can we then declare this as actual rubbish? To define rubbish it would have to be something of no worth to anyone, so therefore only having negative value, and meaning that ‘Rubbish has no value’ and if something can be regenerated, re-used or sold then it cannot be ‘rubbish’ as it holds value either financially or emotionally to someone. The point is that objects will always have value as long as someone values them.

Conclusion

To conclude with this essay, in order for something to be labelled as ‘rubbish’ items would have to be declared as Rubbish, waste holding zero value to anyone, because if something still holds value to somebody either financially or emotionally then it cannot be defined as ‘rubbish’ but as unwanted items that are wanted by another, showing that most ‘rubbish’ holds value to somebody and should be named appropriately, as only rubbish that is not able to be re-used in some way, is then when it has reached the point of being declared as ‘rubbish’, concluding that ‘Rubbish holds no value’ only negative value, as it has to be disposed of which costs money and also a huge price on the environment through pollution.