The Story of Stuff

Have you ever wondered where all this stuff we buy comes from and where it goes when we throw it out?

Materials Economy What the textbook says is that stuff moves through a system from extraction to production to distribution to consumption to disposal—all together it is called the “materials economy.” What is missing from the “material economy” is people—bumping up against limits.

The Crisis The crisis—it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet. You cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.

Extraction A fancy word for natural resource exploitation Which is a fancy word for trashing the planet The first limit—we are running out of resources If the rest of the world consumed at U.S. rates we would need three to five planets

Production We use energy to mix toxic chemicals to mix with natural resources to make toxic contaminated products There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals used in production today—only a handful have ever been tested for health impacts And none have been tested for the interaction with other chemicals We do know –toxics in toxics out

Distribution This means selling as quickly as possible The goal is to keep the prices down, keep the people buying, keep the inventory moving How to keep prices down? -low pay -skimp on health insurance -externalizing cost—the price does not capture real cost

Golden Arrow of Consumption The heart of the system The U.S. has become a nation of consumers—our identity has become that of consumers What percentage of products in this system are still in use 6 months later? 1% 99 percent is trashed in 6 months

Consumption is a way of life Planned Obsolescence—“designed for the dump” Perceived obsolescence—“convinces us to throw away things that are still useful”

The only part of the material economy we see is the shopping! We have more tuff—but less time for the things that make us happy! We are on this work, watch, spend treadmill

Disposal Each of us makes 4.5 pounds of garbage a day Does recycling help? yes—but it is never enough For every garbage can you put on the curb there were 70 garbage cans from earlier stages in the material economy