--- title: 'Throwaway Living': When Tossing Out Everything Was All the Rage description: In the mid-1950s, the notion of using something once and then throwing it away wasn't seen as wasteful, but as the height of modern living. canonical: https://time.com/3879873/throwaway-living-when-tossing-it-all-was-all-the-rage/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-15T21:27:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:42.428Z og:title: 'Throwaway Living': When Tossing Out Everything Was All the Rage og:description: In the mid-1950s, the notion of using something once and then throwing it away wasn't seen as wasteful, but as the height of modern living. og:url: https://time.com/3879873/throwaway-living-when-tossing-it-all-was-all-the-rage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4a2aa8f1181fab4/69884b0c0b72e3d6c86e3789/140108-plastic-1955-peter-stackpole.jpg?branch=production&width=816&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 816 og:image:height: 459 og:image:alt: Throwaway Living og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Throwaway Living': When Tossing Out Everything Was All the Rage twitter:description: In the mid-1950s, the notion of using something once and then throwing it away wasn't seen as wasteful, but as the height of modern living. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4a2aa8f1181fab4/69884b0c0b72e3d6c86e3789/140108-plastic-1955-peter-stackpole.jpg?branch=production&width=816&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Throwaway Living': When Tossing Out Everything Was All the Rage > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=80e758f8-cace-4eba-ad2f-721ee0567709&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 15, 2014 9:27 PM UTC  A man, woman and child toss "disposable" items into the air, 1955. A man, woman and child toss "disposable" items into the air, 1955. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 15, 2014 9:27 PM UTC In August 1955, LIFE magazine published an article with the now-vaguely-sinister, then-celebratory title, “Throwaway Living.” The idea, it seems, was that humans had entered a kind of wanton Golden Age, when cleaning up after ourselves was just one more quaint waste of time, and tossing more and more of our used-once items into the trash was another sign of modernity’s relentless ascendancy over the drudgery of the past. Today, when the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is a mantra that more and more people can recite without cringing, and as places like New York City are actively urging urbanites to [embrace the joys of composting](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/nyregion/composting-in-new-york-city-pilot-program-expands.html), the “throwaway living” era might seem like a time of manic, perpetual jettisoning. (“The objects flying through the air \[in the first picture above\] would take 40 hours to clean,” LIFE noted, “except that no housewife need bother. They are all meant to be thrown away after use.” Lucky, lucky housewife!) But before we start feeling too superior about our enlightened ways, keep in mind that while we might be doing better nowadays disposing of our plastics and aluminum and cardboard and such, [nearly half of the food produced in the United States each year gets thrown away](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/wasted-food-ip.pdf). That’s roughly $165 billion worth of edibles, effectively tossed in the trash. Seems we’re still part of a throwaway society, after all. ---  A man, woman and child toss "disposable" items into the air, 1955. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Cleaning up after the 'Throwaway Living' photo shoot, 1955. 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