“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” 

– Victor Lebow (1955)

 Consumption

Plastic being one of the cheapest and most commonly used materials around the world, it is found in majority of the products we consume. The consumption of plastic can generally be translated to the consumption of products in the market because plastic is a component of countless products in the market. The lifestyles of man has become increasingly lavish and overconsumption is seemingly inevitable in the modern societies. There are mainly two reasons why there is a steady increase in the amount of plastic waste generated: planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence is the process of intentionally rendering a product obsolete after a period of time to induce consumers to change their product for a newer, more updated and advanced version. Some of the common planned obsolescence practices include:

• Limited functional life design
• Design for limited repair
• Design aesthetics that lead to reduced satisfaction

This can be seen in many laptops or handphones that has reduced functionality after an average of 3 years. Large mobile phone companies like Apple and Samsung come up with newer and revised version of gadgets to attract its customers to update their old model.

Perceived obsolescence emphasises on the consumer’s conviction that he/she needs an updated version of a product. Usually the product that the consumer currently owns is still able to function, hence the obsolescence is most often decided based on aesthetics rather than functionality. Potential consumers often perceive themselves as outdated and sees a need to purchase new products to improve their self-image.

Either influenced by perceived or planned obsolescence, consumers become motivated to purchase products after a relatively short period of time, hence engage in frequent discarding of their former products.

From an economic point of view, sales is the primary focus of product manufacturers to drive their businesses. Therefore it is through massive advertising that encourages consumers to purchase more and eventually leading to overconsumption of these products, way more than necessary.

---

Disposal

When there is high consumption and obsolescence, there will be high disposal rates. Hence the method of disposal plays a large role in contributing to the plastics that ultimately end up in the oceans. Proper disposal of waste into bins is encouraged largely in many developed societies. Recycling of the waste is a step further taken to help sort our trash for more effective treatment of waste. However, what people may not know about plastic is that only a fraction of our plastic products can be recycled. Post-consumer plastic refers to the plastics that is left after we have consumed the product we purchased and they are usually contaminated with food, therefore they are not preferred by recyclers. In 2013, the amount of plastic waste generated in Singapore is 832,200 tonnes and only 11% of these plastic waste is recycled.

Of course, there will also be intentional disposal of trash into waters, especially by people who live in coastal areas as it is a convenient act, albeit causing harm to the environment. This behaviour demonstrates Tragedy of the Commons, where a common pooled resource (the ocean) is being used excessively for the interests and gains of an individual (disposal of plastic trash). Each individual will perceive the common resource to be large enough to render their own consumption negligible. In the case of plastic disposal into the oceans, people will be equipped with the mindset that even if they do not dispose of their trash into the oceans, there will be others who will do so. Many of these people are not educated on how their actions are causing harm and even death to animals as well as themselves eventually. Factories located near shorelines sometimes dispose of their waste into the sea; such actions are direct causes of plastics present in the ocean and they can be consciously avoided.

 

---

Next, nature causes.

Previously, causes of plastics in oceans.