Band 7+: Nowadays, people always throw old things away and buy new things, whereas in the past, old things were repaired and used again. What factors cause this phenomenon? What effects does the phenomenon lead to?

In today’s world, replacing old things with new ones has become increasingly common for people rather than repairing them and using again. While this can be attributed to new advancements and the desire to keep up with modern trends, this can challenge countries financially due to increased emissions and lead to soil degradation.

There are two driving forces fueling this phenomenon, one of which is innovation. With scientists redesigning their existing models or creating new multi-functional advancements, obsolete ones are abandoned. Faced with advanced innovations in terms of quality, function, and appearance, many people are biased toward such new creations rather than relying on old-fashioned and outdated ones. Another possible reason for this trend is the willingness to keep up with the modern trends. It is beyond dispute that many people are prone to showing off on social media when they have purchased new things, such as clothes, or devices. Exposed to such content on social media and peer pressure, many individuals are willing to buy the latest products instead of overly relying on out-dated ones.

However, this can detrimentally affect the environment by increasing the amount of emission in many regions of the world. When individuals consistently purchase new products and throw old ones away, they significantly contribute a large amount of emissions, as many recycling factories are unable to recycle such a huge scale of emissions simultaneously. Exposed to such a recycling pressure, governments strive to handle this issues instantly in order to avoid environmental issues by implementing recycling policies and establishing factories, channeling a large part of their budgets into such implementations. This phenomenon may not only cause increased emissions but also make the environment worse. If countries are unable to address emission problems in a relatively short time, remaining emissions are more likely to contribute to soil degradation because some emissions contain hard particles and substances that soil cannot erode, resulting in soil quality deterioration.

In conclusion, while this trend is largely due to advancement and social media pressure, it has a huge impact on the environment and can be financially burden in certain countries.