I really enjoyed watching Annie Leonard’s video about The Story of Stuff Project. The video presentation was very simple and clean, to the point, and very informative. I think she simplified the problem enough that it could be understandable to the masses, and clearly it is by being viewed over a million times. It is funny that this was the video we had to watch this week because Nolan, Lou, Daniel, and I were just having this discussion on Friday. Everything that Annie talked about in the video we had discussed but we didn’t know the studies and information behind it.
Annie discusses the system that explains the problem of consumption in our world called the materials economy. This system has five parts to it, Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal. Each part breaks down how our society is continuing a system that is destroying our planet. In the extraction phase corporations are destroying the limited natural resources that we have to produce products. Annie explains that we are running out of resources, 1/3 of our natural resources are gone already. About 80% of original forest areas are gone and almost 40% of water is undrinkable. And you know how is destroying most of natural land and putting most of the toxic chemicals in the environment, we are! That’s right, good old fashion Americans! We are only 5% of population but we use 30% of world’s resources and produce 30% of the worlds waste.
Then we move into the production phase where materials moved to production. We use our natural resources and mix it with toxic chemicals and produce toxic products. We are essentially putting toxics in and toxics out. And the individuals that suffer the most from this are the factor workers. But this is how the system works. You take the people you run out of their homes, the individuals whom natural resources you either took or destroyed, they are forced to relocate so they move into the cities where they have to find jobs, and the only place most of them can work is in the very factors that destroyed their homes. These people are becoming sick because the factors they work at are putting out 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.
After the production phase the toxic moves on to the distribution phase. In this phase the companies that sell these products try to keep the prices as low as they can so that consumers will want to buy. They are able to keep the costs so low because first they do not pay their employers much because they aren’t paying for the essential things they might need such as healthcare. Second, they are using a tactic of externalizing cost, which means the consumers aren’t really paying for the stuff we buy. The products are so much cheaper because we aren’t paying a lot in cost to make them. But we are affecting the people who lose their natural resources, lose their the clean air, and lose their future because the corporations are taking advantage of them but no one cares because we are still receiving our products.
The last two phases of the system are consumption and disposal. The world has become a nation of consumers. 99% of the products we buy are trashed within six months. Annie argues that this how our government wants us to act. The government stated that our primary purpose is to purchase more consumer goods. Our primary purpose has a society is not to fix social injustice, or education, or stop crime, or have equal healthcare for all but to spend your money so you can keep the economy alive. And companies are taking advantage of this with two basic principles, planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence purpose is to design for the dumb, basically make stuff that doesn’t last. You are forced to go get that new car, or new technology because nothing you have is built to last you along time. And if it does then advertisers use perceived obsolescence which is embarrassing their consumers because they have the outdated products. No one wants to be laughed out because you are wearing clothes that are out of season or you are using the cell phone that isn’t even made anymore. It points out that ads are essentially telling you that you suck if you do not have the most up to date technology, maybe the 3000 a day ads are what is making our national happiness go down… And I wanted to go into advertising!
The last phase of disposal is quick and to the point. We cannot survive much longer on this planet if we are putting out 4.5 pounds of trash a day per consumer. So what are Annie’s solutions to the problems? She wants to take back our government by eliminating the influence that major corporations have on our policy makers. She also wants consumers to understand that we cannot keep living on this plant at the rate we are going. We have to have more environment friendly products and find a better way of disposal. If we do that then maybe we will have a more suitability, equity, green chemistry, local living economy, zero waste, closed loop production and more renewable energy.