"The Story of Stuff" is a highly informative video where Annie Leonard uncovers the truth behind where "stuff" comes from and where it goes after its thrown out. By that, this video explains how the materials economy works and how it is affected by consumerism. Leonard's aim is to educate the general public about how this industry actually works, instead of how society is made to believe it works, and she was successful in my case. Before watching this video I had not thought too much about the whole 'cycle' of extraction to disposal and if I had then I would have realised that this is not actually a cycle how it should be but it is currently a linear system. The problem with this system is that our planet is finite, meaning that we have limited resources that will eventually run out.
Leonard explains how the government that are supposed to be representing the people, have focused on looking after the corporations as they have in fact grown bigger than the governments themselves. Extraction is a part of the materials economy, where we are running out of natural resources. Leonard explains that her country, The US, in the past three decades have used one third of their natural resources. The fact is that more than the fair share is being used. The United States accounts for 5% of the world's population yet they had used 30% of the resources and created 30% of the waste.
More issues with this system lie within the production of this consumer products. Toxic chemicals are put into products that are not tested for their affects on humans and the environment. To create these products toxic pollution is being released into the atmosphere. Distribution is the next stage that Leonard examines and she explains how low prices are achieved. The example she uses is that she went to buy a radio and found one for $4.99. The cost to produce this radio from materials to assembly to shipping, far out weigh the cost price so she asks who actually pays for this radio. "These people paid with the loss of their natural resource space, these people paid with their lost their clean air, kids in the Congo paid with the loss of their future, these people even paid by having to cover their own health insurance. All along this system people pitched in so I could get this radio for $4.99 and none of these contributions are recorded in any accounts book.".
Leonard states that The US has become a nation of consumers due to the government's influence on society. Value in society is now measured by how much we consume, therefore people are shopping more and more, even for products that they do not need. The presenter explains that 99% of these products created are thrown out within six months of being purchased. This is a huge statistic that is a main factor in the reason why this process is not working.
Products are designed using two strategies that encourage this process of purchasing new products, planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is designing products that become useless and will need to be disposed such as plastic bags, DVDs or even computers. Perceived obsolescence however convinces the user to throw away products that work perfectly based on changing appearances of products. Therefore making it obvious if a product is outdated and resulting in a consumer lose social value. These two strategies seem morally wrong but both work. I have experienced and have been aware of perceived obsolescence but had not come across planned obsolescence so this video really explained how the combination of these two work together to keep consumers buying products they do not need.
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