Consumers, Waste and the ‘Throwaway Society’ Thesis: Some Observations on the Evidence

The ‘throwaway society’ thesis – invariably attributed to Vance Packard (1967) – is widespread in social commentary on post-war social change.It represents, simultaneously, a sociological analysis and a moral critique of recent social development. In this art icle I take a brief look at the core of the ‘throwaway society’ thesis and make some comment on its modern origins before p resenting and discussing data on household waste in Britain across the twentieth century.I conclude that there is nothing peculiarly post-war about dumping huge quantities of unwanted stuff and then lambasting the waste that it represents.When the historical evidence on household waste disposal is investigated, together with the historical social commentary on household wastefulness, it appears that the ‘throwaway society’ is a great deal older than Packard’s analysis has been taken to suggest.