Why Do We Have One-Time Use Products?

We couldn’t have chosen a better day for a trip to Takamatsu.
The sun shone center stage against a backdrop of aquamarine, a slight breeze tried to cool us down in the midsummer’s afternoon but in vain.

The day was hot. Rounding a corner in the crowded 商店街 a gelato shop stood out like a neon sign promising relief. We made a beeline for the beckoning counter, mentally wiping away our drool as our eyes devoured all the flavours on offer. Ginger caramel, green muscat, mint, and pistachio – it’s almost impossible to choose.

“Welcome!” Says the friendly girl behind the counter. She must have seen the panic in my eyes and decided to take pity on my harried indecisive mind. “If you like, you can try out any of our flavours first.”

Would I like? Absolutely! My mind immediately starts systematically creating a list, eliminating all the flavours I’ve already tried and weighing the pros and cons of others in terms of novelty and perceived deliciousness. With difficulty I pull myself out of my greed and stick to two flavours to try. The obliging shop assistant dutifully pulls out two colourful plastic spoons and scoops me a little mouthful of each flavour. I taste them both. Heavenly. The girl reaches out a cup for me to throw away my used spoons into. Automatically I reach out to do so.

But wait a minute. Our whole exchange lasted about three minutes, from exchanging hellos to choosing my flavours. And in even less time than that, in the span of mere seconds, those two pretty little spoons went from being a completely brand new commodity to trash. Their only crime? For having touched my lips. It didn’t matter that I tried to hold onto my spoons by explaining that I would use them to eat my purchased gelato. However, a second shop assistant was the one to scoop and hand me my gelato, with another brand new spoon already attached. Three little plastic spoons in the trash in less time than it takes to open up Facebook and post an angry status about it.

But the plight of these spoons are not a unique case. Our society is littered (literally) with examples of one-time use products, who’s shelf lives are shorter than that of the mayfly’s – which at just 24 hours, has one of the shortest lifespans on earth.

But these products’ short moments in the sun are in no way congruent to the amount of hours and labour that goes into their production. That plastic spoon, those plastic bags, the new phone, and new car – all require resources and manpower galore.

It’s not due to some kind of oversight or bad design. On the contrary, these examples of planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence is the driving force behind our new linear economy, which companies and industries like because it means they do not have to keep searching for new consumers. Their old consumers will do just fine when they come back over, and over, again to buy the same products because the ones they already bought are no longer functional or fashionable.

Planned obsolescence means it’s not (completely) your fault you keep having to buy a new phone. Every new generation of phones that comes out with new specs and hardware means that old parts and accessories are no longer supported.

Before the 1930s, consumer goods were made to last. If your washing machine broke, you didn’t just buy a whole new one, you brought it in for repairs and only fixed the parts that needed fixing. Same goes with your car. But by the middle of the 1920’s the American car industry was facing saturation, and in order to maintain sales, General Motors began to change the model of their car annually, in order to convince customers they needed to buy a new replacement car every year.

From there on outwards, industry after industry adapted this strategy. After all, why settle for a customer that comes once to buy a durable and lasting product, when you could make a product less sound, and forget about making replacement parts altogether, all the while gaining that one customer for life. It is a producer’s dream, with fat bottom lines padding the pockets of companies everywhere.

For the consumer, and the world the consumer lives in (which, incidentally, is also the same world in which the producers live) this is a nightmare. It means our resources are continually being depleted, because in order for planned obsolescence to work, there has to be new new new! all the time. And what about all that old, old, old that is the afterthought of all that new? Just look at our overfilled landfills the world over and you shall see (and smell) the consequences.

It is this generation’s misfortune that we have grown up in this linear economy, where planned obsolescence and the one-time use and short lifespan products it generates are the norm and not the exception. We have so far removed ourselves from the natural circular economy that is what nature is made of.

But the ways of the past do not need to dictate the roads of the future. We are much more informed than the companies who wish us to blindly spend our money would like. We make a choice every time we put our money down on a product that is either well made to last, or something we know we will use a few times and throw away without a second thought (I’m looking at you, Fast Fashion). Or in the case of throw away spoons, forks, chopsticks, cups, bags etc. – the best defense is a good offense!

Bring your own and refuse them at the stores. There is no such thing as no choice. We all have a choice, and it is also our imperative to use that choice, or let someone else, with their own agendas to satisfy, make that choice for us.

So, what will you choose?