Annie Leonard is fiercely dedicated to reclaiming and transforming our industrial and economic systems so they serve, rather than undermine, ecological sustainability and social equity. She is the author and host of the online film, “The Story of Stuff” which exposes the hidden environmental and social costs of current systems of production and consumption.
She begins to explain to us the important system in process which is in crisis at the moment. The materials economy starts off with:
extraction à production à distribution à consumption à disposal.
This process is the system where stuff moves through. Its a linear system which interacts within the world and involves things like the economy and culture. As a result of this people both live and work along the system not only creating “stuff” but also creating the crisis, ie. Polluting the environment.
EXTRACTION: is the natural resource explortation, which wipes out animals and therefore running out of resources for the rest of us. As a result, figures show that a third of natural resources are consumed on this earth which is equally equivalant to cutting down 200 trees/minute in the Southern Hemisphere.
PRODUCTION: the creation and assembly of goods. It is said that there are over 100 000 synthetic chemicals which impact the environment. These synthetic chemicals are put into all products, as a result putting toxics in and taking toxics out to manufacture products. These toxics are not only harming us as humans but also bringing them into our homes, schools and public environments which we interact with every day. Toxics build up in our food chain and as a matter of fact people still work with toxic products, still knowing how dangerous toxics can be for them to inhale and at the same time work with. Contaminated and lethal toxics leave our factories and create pollution all over the world. What makes it even worse is that factories are moved overseas for cheaper labour and resources but do not think about the pollution they create somewhere else.
CONSUMPTION: the amount of money and expenditure used up to create these products is unbelievable. Materials are kept flowing and not only are used for a small amount of time but are then thrown out. 1% of products are used after six months of being bought and the rest of the 99% is trashed and never used again. Things like health care and education are a significant part of this wide world put people don’t take it into as much consideration but rather ignore it.
Planned and percieved obsolescence are a major part of the system in crisis. Both of these make products useless as quick as possible so we can buy new ones, eg. Compters and bbq’s. It’s amazing to know how quick manfucaturers and designers make “stuff” break, potentionally making people to go out and buy more of the same product or an alternative to what you already have.
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE: is changing the look and aesthetics of a product. For example, fashion. From one year to the next fashion changes from fat heels to skinny heels back to fat heels the next. This type of obsolescence keeps us buying things as the trend or fashion changes from one year to the next, just to keep up-to-date.
RECYCLING: there isn’t enough recycling at home so it is all then sent to the waste to be sorted out making the job harder for workers and time consuming. Some things are manufactured to not be able to be recycled or burnt because of the toxics in the product.
Dioxin is a man made substance which disallows products to be burnt when it is sent to the landfill. A substance like this is very harmful to society and creates more rubbish on this earth, adding up to the equivalent of 4.5 pounds of garbage a household creates in a day. All this rubbish is burnt in the insinerator and then taken to the landfill, although if the product cannot be burnt it is just left in the landfill to rot.
As they said in the video, ads make us unhappy with what we have, although it makes us “right” in some way if we go shopping to fix the unhappiness. Media is another major influence as there’s more “stuff” and less “stuff” of whats meant to make us happy for example leisure, family and friends.
THE STORY OF STUFF – some say its unrealistic but others say its BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.
She begins to explain to us the important system in process which is in crisis at the moment. The materials economy starts off with:
extraction à production à distribution à consumption à disposal.
This process is the system where stuff moves through. Its a linear system which interacts within the world and involves things like the economy and culture. As a result of this people both live and work along the system not only creating “stuff” but also creating the crisis, ie. Polluting the environment.
EXTRACTION: is the natural resource explortation, which wipes out animals and therefore running out of resources for the rest of us. As a result, figures show that a third of natural resources are consumed on this earth which is equally equivalant to cutting down 200 trees/minute in the Southern Hemisphere.
PRODUCTION: the creation and assembly of goods. It is said that there are over 100 000 synthetic chemicals which impact the environment. These synthetic chemicals are put into all products, as a result putting toxics in and taking toxics out to manufacture products. These toxics are not only harming us as humans but also bringing them into our homes, schools and public environments which we interact with every day. Toxics build up in our food chain and as a matter of fact people still work with toxic products, still knowing how dangerous toxics can be for them to inhale and at the same time work with. Contaminated and lethal toxics leave our factories and create pollution all over the world. What makes it even worse is that factories are moved overseas for cheaper labour and resources but do not think about the pollution they create somewhere else.
CONSUMPTION: the amount of money and expenditure used up to create these products is unbelievable. Materials are kept flowing and not only are used for a small amount of time but are then thrown out. 1% of products are used after six months of being bought and the rest of the 99% is trashed and never used again. Things like health care and education are a significant part of this wide world put people don’t take it into as much consideration but rather ignore it.
Planned and percieved obsolescence are a major part of the system in crisis. Both of these make products useless as quick as possible so we can buy new ones, eg. Compters and bbq’s. It’s amazing to know how quick manfucaturers and designers make “stuff” break, potentionally making people to go out and buy more of the same product or an alternative to what you already have.
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE: is changing the look and aesthetics of a product. For example, fashion. From one year to the next fashion changes from fat heels to skinny heels back to fat heels the next. This type of obsolescence keeps us buying things as the trend or fashion changes from one year to the next, just to keep up-to-date.
RECYCLING: there isn’t enough recycling at home so it is all then sent to the waste to be sorted out making the job harder for workers and time consuming. Some things are manufactured to not be able to be recycled or burnt because of the toxics in the product.
Dioxin is a man made substance which disallows products to be burnt when it is sent to the landfill. A substance like this is very harmful to society and creates more rubbish on this earth, adding up to the equivalent of 4.5 pounds of garbage a household creates in a day. All this rubbish is burnt in the insinerator and then taken to the landfill, although if the product cannot be burnt it is just left in the landfill to rot.
As they said in the video, ads make us unhappy with what we have, although it makes us “right” in some way if we go shopping to fix the unhappiness. Media is another major influence as there’s more “stuff” and less “stuff” of whats meant to make us happy for example leisure, family and friends.
THE STORY OF STUFF – some say its unrealistic but others say its BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.
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