the story of stuff Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard traveled around the world for10 years to figure out exactly what went on when we consume stuff and what happens to them when they are thrown out.

she begins by correcting and filling in the missing pieces of what happens in the linear system, such as people, the government and the corporations

1. EXTRACTION= natural resources for exploitation

we are running out of resources 1/3 of our natural resources are diminished in the past 30years

in the U.S she states that they consume 40% of water usage and there is only less than 4% of natural resources left for them to consume, where the US consume up to 30% of the waste. 

she further continues by stating statistics to justify her reasons of the over consumption that we have done using up to 80% of the planets' original forest are gone.

2. The next step from collecting resources is PRODUCTION: using energy and toxic synthetic chemicals to create our products, such as BFRs (Brominated Flame Retardants) are chemicals that make things more flame retardant but are highly toxic- being neuro toxic= toxic to the brain.

People (esp.women) who work in these factories are daily exposed to reproductive toxins. They have no where else to go so they end up working in these areas and most living in slums, as opposed to their previous locations of the sustainable areas that are now diminished by machines in order to reach raw goods. so it does not only impact our environment but our people as well.

Toxics in and toxics out also lead to great pollution coming out of these factories -(the US admitting they pollute over 4billion toxic fumes a year) so they move the factories overseas. 

3. DISTRIBUTION: keeping the prices low so consumers will buy more and more, this process is done by externalising costs which means that we don't pay for how it was made as the people who worked for cheap labouring and having no health insurance all chipped through these external costs which did not take into place of the final selling price.

the average person consumed twice as much as we did half a century ago. Leonard explains that this came about through the reasons of consuming goods through planned obsolescence= "designed for the dump" (started in the 1950s) designing stuff so that it can be thrown away within months such as computers where the it becomes unusable within a couple of years. As the only thing that changed is the microchip. 

Perserved obsolescence= throwing away things away even though it works perfectly fine. It is the changing designs of the product, advertisments play a big role in this by showing that we need to go out there and buy stuff--go shopping. However studies show that happiness has declined--we have more stuff but less leisure time. 

INCINERATION--creates dioxins (the most harmful toxins that we know) are being released back into the air when rubbish is burnt and buried into the ground.

she concludes that we are people and we can change the linear system into a circular one where action can take place to help our planet and us live a happier life, through recycling, using more sustainable products and production methods as well as better working rights and fair trade in the economy.