Since 1955, after the name given by Life magazine, the United States of America has been called "The Throwaway Society". In the United States, society is built on the principle of convenience. In all aspects of life, Americans seek to maximize their output while minimizing their contribution. Americans buy fast food so they can eat without having to shop, cook, or clean. Americans get their clothes dry cleaned so they don't have to worry about the burden of washing, drying, and hanging their own clothes. And Americans want everything in a neat package and ready to go so they don't have to prepare it themselves. But those millions of disposable bags, disposable bottles and disposable cups are a real waste mess. Companies that throw away waste generate large quantities of disposable products and waste. Last year, America generated 250 million tons of waste, or about 4.43 pounds of waste per person. person per day. For comparison, this amount of waste is equivalent to 125 million elephants, 1.5 billion sturdy offensive linemen, or 500 billion pounds of trash. Image 1 provides waste generation statistics that support the assertion that the United States is a throwaway society. With so much waste generated daily as a nation, it would be difficult to argue that America is not a throwaway society. Those who claim that America does not have a throwaway society would fail to understand that although America has only 20 percent of the world's population, it consumes 80 percent of the world's resources. This makes America, by far, the largest producer of waste per capita in the world. Recycling is insufficient to compensate for waste production. Of all this waste, only 34 percent is recycled...... middle of paper ...... It was the throwaway society that caused.Works CitedCapt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic. Performed by Charles Moore. TED. February 2009. http://www.ted.com (accessed November 29, 2011). Cooper, Mary H. “The Economics of Recycling.” CQ Researcher, March 27, 1998: 265-288. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ (accessed November 28, 2011). Griffin, Rodman D. “Garbage Crisis.” CQ Researcher, March 20, 1992: 241-264. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ (accessed November 28, 2011). “U.S. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal: Facts and Figures for 2010.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. November 2011. http://www.epa.gov (accessed November 30, 2011). Weeks, Jennifer. “The Future of Recycling.” CQ Researcher, December 14, 2007: 1033-1060. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ (accessed November 29, 2011).