This article treats the topic of consumer waste by beginning with a contemporary story that illustrates the reality and complex dynamics of throwaway culture. Noting the dynamic quality of waste, it offers a brief review of the development of throwaway society. Beginning in a preindustrial world in which the battle against “moth and rust” required habits of reuse and repair, or what cultural historian Susan Strasser refers to as bricolage, it then traces changes in “natural” and “temporal” imaginaries, as well as economic and technological factors, that rendered obsolete the cultural skills and imaginative capacities of bricolage. Having argued that forgetting and loss of imagination are key to waste-making, it offers two Christian responses that schools and faith communities might practice: “material anamnesis” and “redemptive vision.”

本文从一个当代故事开始讨论消费者浪费的话题，该故事说明了一次性文化的现实和复杂动态。注意到废物的动态质量，它简要回顾了一次性社会的发展。从工业化前的世界开始，在这个世界中，与“飞蛾和锈蚀”的斗争需要重复使用和修复的习惯，或者文化历史学家苏珊·斯特拉瑟 (Susan Strasser) 所说的拼装，然后追溯“自然”和“时间”想象的变化，以及经济和技术因素，使拼贴的文化技能和想象力变得过时。在论证遗忘和失去想象力是造成浪费的关键之后，它提供了学校和信仰团体可能会实践的两种基督教回应：“物质回忆”和“救赎愿景”。