What is a Throwaway Culture?

Some people describe the United States as a throwaway culture. It’s difficult to argue against this when you see the amount of single-use, disposable, and convenience products that the average American uses on a daily basis. Americans produce 30% of the world’s garbage despite only making up 5% of the global population. So what is a throwaway culture, and how does that affect your industrial motion control system?

What is a throwaway culture?

Throwaway culture is a negatively loaded term for societies that are driven by consumerism. It’s typically hallmarked by items with short lifespans, disposable goods, impulse buys, and decisions made based on convenience.

You may have noticed the quality of goods decreasing over the years. Goods were once built to last a lifetime, and it made more sense to repair these high quality goods than to buy a new one. You can still purchase well made consumer goods that can be passed down from generation to generation, but most of these goods are now considered luxury or specialty items, and have a price tag to match.

Today, goods are being produced faster, they’re cheaper, and the quality is lesser. Items are no longer purchased for life; consumers recognize that an additional purchase must be made in the future. The irony here is that inferior products often cost the consumer more money in the long term.

Here are a few behaviors that you can find present in a throwaway culture.

  • Purchasing things that aren’t needed
  • Keeping up with fashion trends
  • Keeping up with technological trends
  • Buying status symbol goods
  • Purchasing items to fit in
  • Making decisions based on convenience. This includes using single-use and disposable items such as cutlery, grocery bags, water bottles, napkins, takeout containers, cups, etc.

Don’t throw out your servos.

Correcting a lifetime of habits and learned behaviors is an uphill battle. However, making positive changes in your life is a worthy struggle. You shouldn’t flip your normal way of life upside-down, though. Refusing to use plastic of any kind is much more difficult — and time consuming —  than you realize.

Take steps, and make small decisions that have significant outcomes.

Scrapping your defective Indramat servo motor might be your first thought if you live in a throwaway culture. It doesn’t work, so it’s time to get a new one, right? Repairing your Indramat servos is really your best option, however. Unlike many of the consumer goods produced today, Indramat servo motors were built to last. A little TLC is all that it takes to restore your servos.

Indramat servo repair is your best option:

  • Repairing your servos eliminates waste. You’re using your original unit instead of sending it to a scrapyard.
  • It cuts out the downtime and difficulty of finding a replacement servo — Indramat servos are legacy, and haven’t been manufactured in decades.
  • Indramat servo repair saves money. It maximizes your ROI, and is more affordable than buying a new unit.
  • Reusing your original Indramat servo eliminates compatibility issues that come from getting the wrong replacement unit.
  • Factory repair saves time; we offer Indramat factory repair services with a 24 hour turnaround.

Indramat servo motors don’t fail very often, which means that you won’t have to be persistent or disciplined about making a more sustainable decision. Indramat factory repair saves time, it saves money, and it can help you make decisions that combat a throwaway culture.

A factory repair is also simple and convenient. Just call 479-422-0390 and we’ll get your Indramat motion control system up and running as quickly as possible.