Have you ever wondered where all the stuff we buy comes from and where it goes when we throw it out? Annie Leonard did much
more than wondering, she investigated. The Story of Stuff website and video presentation are a result of her investigation.
The text books say that our stuff moves along these stages: extraction to production to distribution to
consumption to disposal. This is called the materials
economy. This is a system in crisis, because it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you can not run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.
All along the way, this system is interacting with societies, cultures, economies, the environment. And it's also bumping up against limits. People live and work all along this system, and some matter a little more than others, some have a little more say. Who are they?
One of them is the government, its job is to watch out for us, to take care of us. That's their job.
Then comes the corporation, which is bigger than the government. Of the 100 largest economies on earth now, 51 are corporations.
Extraction, here we are running up against our first limit. We're running out of resources, one-third of the planet's natural resources have been consumed. Gone.
75% of global fisheries now are fished at or beyond capacity.
80% of the planet’s original forests are gone.
In the Amazon alone, we’re losing 2000 trees a minute. That is seven football fields a minute.
Next, the materials move to "production" where energy is used to mix toxic chemicals in with the natural resources. These toxics build up in the food chain and concentrate in our bodies. So, after these resources are turned into products, they move into distribution, which means "selling all this toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible."
This brings us to consumption, the heart of the system, the engine that drives it. We have become a nation of consumers. We shop and shop and shop. Keep the materials flowing. The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.
So in the end, what happens to all the stuff we buy? It all goes out in the garbage. Each of us in the United States makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. That is twice what we each made thirty years ago. All of this garbage either gets dumped in a landfill, or it's burned in an incinerator and then dumped in a landfill. Either way, both pullute the air, land, water and, don't forget, change the climate. Burning the garbage releases the toxics up into the air.
Recycling helps, but is not enough.
So you see, it is a system in crisis. From changing climate to declining happiness, it's just not working.
Because what we really need to chuck is this old-school throw-away mindset. Remember that old way didn't just happen by itself. People created it. An we're people too. So let's create something new.