Gregson Argument Board Final Draft by

Color Key:

cp1296 — 2025-10-14 22:30:19 UTC

Main Claim:

cp1296 — 2025-10-14 22:32:04 UTC

SubClaims:

cp1296 — 2025-10-14 22:32:54 UTC

Evidence:

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 03:57:22 UTC

Implication/Conclusion:

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 03:57:33 UTC

Discarding is essential to human life and influences other processes in our daily lives.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 04:33:41 UTC

The act of discarding should not be viewed as a simple act or individual action, but rather as a daily occurrence that profoundly influences human life and the organization of society. By discarding, humans make a daily choice of what stays and what becomes waste. It becomes a part of a broader idea relating to economic, social, and cultural systems.

Section Main claim:

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 05:11:05 UTC

Mobility and eating On-the-Go opened up new ways of discarding.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 22:08:01 UTC

The rise of mobility has transformed how people discard their things into waste. This makes it harder for sustainability, not because of individuals, but the normalization of quick consumption and easy discardability by fast-food and beverage companies.

On-the-go products make it easier for consumers to discard waste on the move, but harder for waste management.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 22:13:22 UTC

Sustainability becomes very difficult when people can dispose of their trash on the move, which challenges the traditional ways of waste management. Mobility highlights the need for a more modern way of managing litter and promoting environmental stability.

The combination of food and drink with waste makes it unrecyclable.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 22:33:33 UTC

With some companies making the right choice to pick up litter in public places, this litter often mixes with food and drink, making it unrecyclable and adding to the sustainability rigmarole. In the end, this waste ends up in the same place as other unrecyclable waste.

The excess of food that is leftover from drive-thru trips makes it common for the waste to be jettisoned out the window.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 22:38:53 UTC

Vehicles are not designed well for discard to be placed. As leftovers start to develop a bad odor, it disturbs the olfactory sense of drivers. This discomfort leads to food being jettisoned out windows.

Economically, it's easier to make these products.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 22:51:25 UTC

Gregson explains, " it is sold to be consumed on the move and that could be literally anywhere – sitting on a bench in a park, on a bus or a train, as well as in a car." These products initially cost less to produce, lessening expenses overall.

Fear of terrorist intentions leads to the removal of trash cans, which also leads to waste accumulation.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 23:01:47 UTC

Trash cans are stationary, so when they get filled up or when they are not near, the chances of someone littering increase. Gregson explains that, "bags of the remains of ‘on-the-go’ food and drink left on park benches, by bench legs, underneath trees and around overflowing bins; and on the trains, tables, seats and luggage racks feature exactly the same sort of discard."

Because of the effortless generation of disposable products, an inhumane amount is being produced.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 23:10:05 UTC

The mass production of these products leads to significant increases in plastic waste. The lack of these products being recycled makes the problem worse. Gregson uses statistical evidence to prove this point when she says, "an estimated 1 trillion disposable cups are produced annually in the world...of which only 4 per cent are currently recycled."

A mixture of food/drink and waste when being picked up causes more harm than good.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 23:22:46 UTC

Although litter does get picked up in public places, when it combines with food, it creates a different kind of waste that ends up being unrecyclable. This kind of cross-contamination results in more waste being incinerated or sent into landfills. That creates a release of greenhouse gases into the environment.

As mentioned before, the collection of trash comes into contact with liquids that contaminate waste.

cp1296 — 2025-10-15 23:29:14 UTC

Gregson explains in Section 2 that, "all that has been discarded is quickly amalgamated to produce piles of heterogeneous materials – paper bags meet cups, some still containing liquids-meet half-drunk cans of beer and lager, meet straws, meet multiple examples of half-eaten food."

Waste will linger until it is discarded.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:20:24 UTC

As long as we keep collecting, at some point, we need to decide on what to discard. Some of these aspects contain the collection of bags and whatever is inside them.

Vehicles lack discardability.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:23:32 UTC

The designs of cars don't support a proper way of throwing things out. Gregson brings this idea up when she says, "Unlike homes, cars – as yet – do not have bins attached to them, and drive-thru businesses do not yet supply their customers with a means to collect their trash".(pg 41) As of result, it leads to different factors like smell and comfort.

The smell of leftovers leads drivers to jettison waste out the window.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:26:59 UTC

Because of the surplus of food that fast-food chains often provide, there is almost always leftover food. This food being left in cars causes a foul smell to develop. Gregson talks about this phenomenon more in depth, "In short, the olfactory qualities of leftover fast food foreground that ‘the what’ of discard can often be in the category of disgusting stuff, or the ‘yuck factor' it is sometimes referred to." (pg 41)

Referring back to the smell of leftovers, it reveals a psychoanalytical reason for the behavior when faced with this smell.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:35:44 UTC

Gregson explains that behavior isn't careless and that there is an emotional and sensory reaction to waste. When people are in cars, the food they ate that was once appealing becomes something vile once they are done. It creates an urge to expel whatever it is. Here, Gregson wants us to realize that discarding isn't so much a physical but an emotional action connected to wanting to separate oneself from waste.

Section 2 emphasizes how the increase in mobility has had a major impact on the amount of waste. The act of deciding is interconnected with the modern living habits of everyday life, rather than a simple individual choice.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:47:34 UTC

Gregson wants the reader to grasp that discarding isn't a normal everyday task, but that it reflects on human life. It is more of an act that shows us how humans live, move, and behave in society. Coming to this conclusion allows for there to be recognition of the responsibility enacted on us to participate in the journey for a more sustainable environment.

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:53:51 UTC

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:55:27 UTC

cp1296 — 2025-10-16 00:57:03 UTC