Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff

Annie Leonard pretty much sums what is wrong with the western world, and what is now creeping into most other cultures in the world. This concept of consumerism, and the vicious cycle of creating the products and what not, to fuel the economy and in the process destroy the poor and the environment.

Leonard talks about how products are designed to be discarded rather than kept, and how it was all started after WWII to get the economy up and running. She goes on to say how much we consume (and how much waste we produce in the process) compared from the 50's to now. I was amazed when she said that Industrial designer's were designing for consumerism rather than for need, and how they would design for the object to not last long so a new product could be manufactured and sold sooner rather than later.

Ive been fascinated with waste for a while and remember seeing a program that talks about creating products, not that can be recycled, but rather can break down quickly and be returned to the earth so new products can be made from them. An old example of this system is the Australian Aborigines who would only take natural things from the earth to survive, wood, leather and stones, which could then be returned back to the earth and the cycle could continue with no damage done.

Its not just the government and large corporations that are to blame, Its us consumers as well, for if we didn't buy crap, they couldn't sell us crap. Also we've become too lazy to fix our damaged goods. If a computer stops working we chuck it all out, If our car stops working, we buy another one, If our phone is outdated we a get a new one.

I hope that we are starting to see a change to this culture, the USA is so screwed economically, maybe the rest of the world will stop creating products just for the US market, and start thinking what the whole world needs, not wants.