IELTS Essay # 97 - Nowadays most people choose to throw away broken things instead of repairing them, and replace them with new ones. Why is this happening? What problems may it lead to?

Essay # 97

Nowadays most people choose to throw away broken things instead of repairing them, and replace them with new ones. Why is this happening? What problems may it lead to?

The rapidly increasing “throwaway” culture is letting people dump broken things carelessly. Spending on new stuff is not so difficult anymore, and this ability to splurge so easily is creating problems, especially for the environment. This essay shall discuss the reasons for this “use-and-throw” trend and illustrate its consequences.

The main reason why people don’t think about throwing their stuff which is broken is because their spending capacity has increased. In the last two decades, the living standards of people have risen tremendously, giving birth to materialism and ergo, people would not want to mend a broken item – it would be much more convenient to purchase a new one. Also, with innovations being done by the minute, you have a great chance of buying an upgraded new item in comparision to the broken one you have; the best example here can be of smartphones.

Now, the problems created by such a culture are, one - the increasing amount of garbage. Taking for instance broken phones, computers, and its accessories, plastic or rubber items - these things are not biodegradable and so they’ll add up to the pile of junk. Second, our global extractions made to produce new products are environmentally damaging and depleting some resources to the extent that they are in danger of running out. Many a times the broken thing dumped away is still working somewhat and just needs a little repair. If the people can be encouraged to do that, then we can curb all these problems, not to mention set an example for the next generation to believe in conservation.

Therefore, I’d conclude by saying that we need to rethink about our attitude toward broken things around us and try to mend them if possible. This will save up a lot of the Earth’s resources in the long run, and also make us value the money we paid for the product.

(315 words)