If I could nominate one object to represent our throwaway society in a museum it's this stupid promotional pen that lives in our lab drawer. It has a mini torch in the lid, but that doesn't work anymore because the battery's gone (before the ink did) and there's no way to replace it without breaking the plastic lid. Some company presumably commissioned thousands of these little pieces of ewaste and gave them away to promote itself, but I can't even find out which one it was to vow never to buy anything from them again because it also fails at its primary function and the marketing details have rubbed off.