The Story of Stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Annie Leonard provides a very insightful and entertaining talk about the process of how products are made and where they come from, what I found to be a very interesting point is that “stuff moves through a system” and she explains to us that it goes from extraction to production to distribution to consumption and then disposal, which all together is called the materials economy.  She explores the limitations of this linear process of production due to our finite planet, where there is a limit of resources.  She runs through the each step of the materials economy pointing out flaws and problems that are present.  The problem of extraction once again goes back to the point of our finite planet, where our resources are limited and nearing towards an end.  In the past few decades she explains to us that 1/3 of the planets natural resource space has been eliminated.  Through logging, mining, cutting, etc.  The problem with production is that we mix and contaminate natural resources with toxins and synthetic chemicals to create contaminated products.  She proposes that the low costs of products comes at the expense of the depletion of natural resources of the planet especially in third world countries and at the expense of workers who have no other choice but to work in hazardous environments that can be detrimental to their health.  She emphasises that we have become a planet of consumers, and of which the worst thing about it is that 99% of the products we buy ends up in the trash after 6 months.  The average U.S person now consumes twice as much as they did as compared to twenty years ago.  This didn’t just happen all just on its own, it was designed to happen through planned obsolescence, which started after world war 2, where products are planned to become obsolete in a planned amount of time to force the consumer to go out and buy a new product.  The only part of the materials economy that the general public see is the shopping side of it, so the extraction production, distribution is unknown to many, making everyone unaware of how much damage we are doing to the planet.  When we dispose of these obsolete products burning these products to dispose of emits the toxins back into the air, and it can also create new super toxins.  Annie Leonards “story of stuff” is insightful and mind opening about the process of how stuff is made and the materials economy.