Will we soon treat people as disposable, asks the Archbishop of Canterbury

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The Archbishop of Canterbury warned yesterday that a throwaway society risks creating throwaway people.

Dr Rowan Williams said that those who discard rubbish and materials too easily are likely to do the same to people and relationships.

In a New Year message filmed in Canterbury Cathedral and at a nearby recycling centre, the Archbishop stressed his concern for the environment and the moral necessity of protecting it.

He said that short-term exploitation of the earth's resources which produces fantastic quantities of waste has implications for other areas of life.

"In a society where we think of so many things as disposable - where we expect to be constantly discarding last year's gadget and replacing it with this year's model - do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable?" Dr Williams asked.

"Are we so fixated on keeping up with change that we lose any sense of our need for stability?"

The Archbishop added: "A lot of the time, we just don't let ourselves think about the future with realism.

"A culture of vast material waste and emotional short-termism is a culture that is a lot more fragile than it knows.

"How much investment are we going to make in a safer and more balanced future?"

Dr Williams is following in the footsteps of the Queen by making his message available on the YouTube website as well as BBC television.

The Queen's Christmas Day message was also posted on the video-sharing website for the first time this year.

The Archbishop adds in his message that God "does not do waste" and does not regard human life as disposable.

"He doesn't regard anyone as a 'waste of space', as not worth his time - from the very beginnings of life to its end, whether they are successful, articulate, productive or not," Dr Williams said.

"And so a life that communicates a bit of what God is like is a life that doesn't give up."

The Archbishop's message will be shown on BBC2 at 8.30 this evening and again on BBC1 at noon on New Year's Day.