The Story of Stuff

Summary

El guion explora el ciclo de vida de los productos, desde la extracción hasta la eliminación, y cómo este sistema lineal entra en crisis en un planeta finito. Expone la influencia del gobierno y las corporaciones en la economía de materiales, y cómo consumimos recursos y producimos residuos a un ritmo insostenible. La charla revela la externalización de costos y la obsolescencia planeada, que impulsan la cultura del consumismo. La oradora insta a la conciencia y la acción colectiva para transformar el sistema en uno sostenible y equitativo, enfocándose en la química verde, la economía circular y la energía renovable.

Takeaways

• 🌏 La economía de materiales es un sistema lineal en crisis, ya que no es sostenible en un planeta finito.
• 🔄 El sistema económico actual es un ciclo de extracción, producción, distribución, consumo y disposición de materiales.
• 👥 Personas y gobiernos tienen un papel importante en este sistema, pero las corporaciones a menudo tienen más influencia.
• 🌳 La extracción de recursos naturales está agotando los recursos del planeta y afectando gravemente el medio ambiente.
• 💧 Los Estados Unidos consume y produce un porcentaje desproporcionado de los recursos y residuos mundiales en comparación con su población.
• ♻️ La producción de bienes implica la mezcla de químicos tóxicos con recursos naturales, lo que resulta en productos contaminados.
• 🤰 Las mujeres y los trabajadores de fábrica, a menudo expuestos a sustancias tóxicas, son los más afectados por los efectos en la salud.
• 🛒 El sistema de consumo se ha convertido en una prioridad para mantener la economía, a pesar de que esto no se alinea con la felicidad o la sostenibilidad.
• 📉 La obsolescencia planificada y perceptiva son estrategias usadas para promover la compra constante de nuevos productos.
• 🗑️ El 99% de los materiales que procesamos se convierte en basura en un plazo de seis meses, lo que indica una tasa de desperdicio alarmante.
• ♻️ El reciclaje es importante, pero no es suficiente para abordar el núcleo del problema, ya que la mayoría de los residuos se producen en la fase de producción.

Q & A

¿Qué es la economía de materiales y cómo se describe en el libro de texto mencionado en el guion?

La economía de materiales es el sistema a través del cual los objetos pasan de la extracción a la producción, la distribución, el consumo y el desecho. Es un proceso lineal que se describe en el libro de texto como una secuencia directa de pasos, pero que según el guion, no cuenta toda la historia.

¿Por qué se considera que el sistema de economía de materiales está en crisis?

El sistema está en crisis porque es lineal y se ejecuta en un planeta finito. No es sostenible ejecutar un sistema lineal indefinidamente en un mundo con recursos limitados, ya que a lo largo del proceso, se están topando con límites físicos y sociales.

¿Qué elementos importantes faltan en la explicación del sistema de economía de materiales según el guion?

Falta la consideración de las personas y su importancia en el sistema, especialmente en términos de quién tiene más influencia y poder, como son los gobiernos y las corporaciones. Además, no se abordan las consecuencias sociales y ambientales de la extracción, producción y disposición de los recursos.

¿Cómo se relaciona el crecimiento de las corporaciones con la atención del gobierno hacia ellas en comparación con la población?

A medida que las corporaciones han crecido en tamaño y poder económico, ha habido un cambio en el enfoque del gobierno, que ahora se muestra más preocupado por asegurarse de que todo salga bien para las corporaciones que por el bienestar de la población.

¿Cuál es el impacto del agotamiento de los recursos naturales en el planeta?

El agotamiento de los recursos naturales está teniendo un impacto negativo significativo en el medio ambiente y en la capacidad del planeta para sostener la vida humana. Se está utilizando y destruyendo recursos a una tasa tan rápida que se ponen en riesgo los ecosistemas y la base de recursos naturales.

¿Por qué la tasa de consumo de los Estados Unidos es preocupante desde una perspectiva global?

Los Estados Unidos consumen un 30% de los recursos mundiales y generan un 30% de los desechos, a pesar de tener solo el 5% de la población mundial. Esto es preocupante porque si todos consumieran a la tasa de EE. UU., se necesitarían 3 a 5 planetas para sostener ese nivel de consumo.

¿Qué implica la frase 'Tóxicos entrantes, tóxicos salientes' y cómo se relaciona con la producción de bienes?

La frase 'Tóxicos entrantes, tóxicos salientes' se refiere al concepto de que mientras se continúe utilizando sustancias tóxicas en la producción industrial, estos tóxicos aparecerán en los productos finales que se consumen. Esto puede resultar en la acumulación de contaminantes en la cadena alimentaria y en los cuerpos humanos.

¿Cómo se relaciona el consumo de bienes con la identidad de los estadounidenses según el guion?

Según el guion, la identidad principal de los estadounidenses se ha convertido en la de consumidores. La valoración y la demostración de su valor se basan en la cantidad que contribuyen al flujo de consumo, lo que ha llevado a un patrón de vida centrado en el consumo y la adquisición de bienes.

¿Qué son la obsolescencia planificada y la obsolescencia percibida, y cómo contribuyen al modelo de consumo actual?

La obsolescencia planificada es el diseño de productos para que se vuelvan inútiles lo antes posible, mientras que la obsolescencia percibida nos convence para deshacernos de cosas que aún son útiles basándonos en el cambio de la moda o la apariencia. Ambas estrategias estimulan el consumo excesivo y el reemplazo constante de productos.

¿Por qué la felicidad nacional en los Estados Unidos ha decaído a pesar de un aumento en el consumo de bienes?

A pesar de tener más cosas, la felicidad nacional ha decaído porque se ha perdido el tiempo para las actividades que realmente generan felicidad, como pasar tiempo con amigos, familia y disfrutar del ocio. Además, se ha incrementado el tiempo de trabajo y la presión para consumir más, lo que ha llevado a un ciclo insalubre de trabajo, entretenimiento y gasto.

¿Cómo se relaciona el reciclaje con el sistema de economía de materiales y por qué no es suficiente por sí solo?

El reciclaje ayuda a reducir la cantidad de desperdicio y la presión para extraer nuevos recursos, pero no es suficiente porque la cantidad de residuos generados en las casas es solo la punta del iceberg. Además, mucho del desperdicio no se puede reciclar debido a la presencia de tóxicos o al diseño que no permite su reciclaje efectivo.

¿Qué soluciones se mencionan en el guion para transformar el sistema de economía de materiales en crisis?

El guion menciona varias soluciones como la química verde, el cero desperdicio, la producción de ciclo cerrado, la energía renovable y las economías locales sostenibles. Estas soluciones ya están en práctica y representan un enfoque nuevo basado en la sostenibilidad y la equidad.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Economía de los materiales y crisis del sistema lineal

El primer párrafo explora el concepto de la economía de los materiales, que abarca la extracción, producción, distribución, consumo y disposición. El hablante expresa su obsesión por sus posesiones y su curiosidad sobre el origen y el destino final de nuestras compras. Tras investigar durante diez años, descubre que el sistema es lineal y está en crisis debido a que no puede funcionar indefinidamente en un planeta finito. El sistema interactúa con sociedades, culturas, economía y medio ambiente, y se encuentra con límites. Además, se resalta la importancia de las personas en este sistema, con un foco especial en el gobierno y las corporaciones, las cuales a menudo tienen más influencia que los propios ciudadanos.

05:02

🌿 Impacto ambiental y social de la extracción y producción

El segundo párrafo se centra en el impacto negativo de la extracción de recursos naturales y la producción industrial. Se menciona el agotamiento de recursos, como la tala de árboles y la explotación de minas, y el uso excesivo de agua y la destrucción de la fauna. Se destaca que el 51% de las economías más grandes del mundo son corporaciones y cómo esto ha afectado la política y la distribución de recursos. Además, se discute la problemática de la acumulación de productos tóxicos en la cadena alimentaria, especialmente en la leche materna humana, y la exposición de los trabajadores a sustancias peligrosas en las fábricas.

10:06

🛒 Distribución y consumismo como pilares del sistema

El tercer párrafo analiza el proceso de distribución y cómo se vende 'basura tóxica' lo más rápido posible. Se critica la forma en que se mantienen los precios bajos a costa de la explotación laboral y la falta de atención a las consecuencias de la producción. El consumismo se presenta como el motor del sistema, con el ejemplo de la reacción del presidente Bush a 9/11 al instar a la gente a seguir comprando. Se argumenta que la identidad principal de los estadounidenses se ha convertido en ser consumidores, y se cuestiona la priorización del crecimiento económico y la producción de bienes de consumo por encima de otros aspectos de la vida, como la atención médica o la educación.

15:09

📉 Consecuencias del consumismo y la obsolescencia programada

El cuarto párrafo explora las consecuencias del consumismo y las estrategias utilizadas para promoverlo, como la obsolescencia programada y percibida. Se describe cómo se diseñan productos para ser inútiles rápidamente y cómo se manipula la percepción del valor de los artículos a través de la moda y la publicidad. Se menciona el papel de los anuncios en la creación de insatisfacción y la presión constante para consumir más. Además, se señala que estos comportamientos de consumo no han traído mayor felicidad, sino que en realidad se ha visto una disminución en la felicidad nacional.

20:14

🚮 Problemas del desecho y la necesidad de un cambio de paradigma

El último párrafo aborda el tema del desecho y la disposición de los productos. Se señala que la cantidad de residuos generados es solo la punta del iceberg y que gran parte de la basura no puede ser reciclable debido a su composición tóxica o diseño. Se critica la práctica de la incineración y se sugiere que el reciclaje, aunque positivo, no es suficiente para abordar el núcleo del problema. El hablante insta a ver las conexiones y el panorama general para poder transformar el sistema lineal en uno sostenible y equitativo, enfatizando que es necesario dejar atrás la mentalidad de desecho y adoptar nuevas prácticas basadas en la sostenibilidad y la equidad.

Keywords

💡Economía de materiales

La economía de materiales se refiere al sistema a través del cual los objetos pasan de la extracción a la producción, distribución, consumo y eliminación. En el video, este concepto es fundamental ya que ilustra cómo los objetos se mueven a través de la sociedad y cómo este sistema lineal entra en crisis debido a las limitaciones del planeta finito.

💡Sistema lineal

Un sistema lineal es aquel que sigue una secuencia de procesos de forma predecible, sin ciclos o retornos. En el video, se argumenta que este tipo de sistema entra en crisis en un planeta finito porque no puede funcionar indefinidamente sin agotar los recursos naturales y sin tener en cuenta las consecuencias ambientales.

💡Extracción

La extracción, en el contexto del video, es el proceso de obtener recursos naturales del entorno, como la tala de árboles o la extracción de metales. El guion destaca cómo esta fase del sistema económico impacta negativamente el medio ambiente y se enfrenta a los límites de los recursos naturales.

💡Corporación

Las corporaciones son grandes entidades empresarialas que, según el guion, a menudo tienen más poder que los gobiernos y son responsables de una gran parte de la producción y el consumo. El video señala que las corporaciones han crecido en tamaño y poder, y esto ha influido en las políticas gubernamentales en su favor.

💡Contaminación tóxica

La contaminación tóxica es un tema central en el video, donde se discute cómo los químicos sintéticos utilizados en la producción de bienes terminan en los hogares y en el medio ambiente. El script menciona que los químicos como los retardantes de llamas bromates son neurotoxicos y se encuentran en muchos objetos cotidianos.

💡Orígenes de la leche materna

El video destaca que la leche materna humana es el alimento que acumula los mayores niveles de contaminantes tóxicos, lo cual es una violación y un riesgo para la salud de los bebés. Esto ilustra cómo los contaminantes se concentran en la cadena alimentaria y afectan a los seres humanos.

💡Consumo planificado

El consumo planificado es la estrategia de diseñar productos para que se des gasten o se obsoletecn rápidamente, lo que impulsa a los consumidores a comprar constantemente. En el video, se utiliza como ejemplo de cómo se fomenta el ciclo de compra y descarte en el sistema económico.

💡Obsolencia percibida

La obsolencia percibida se refiere a la idea de que los productos se vuelven obsoletos no por una falla o desgaste, sino por cambios estilísticos o de diseño. El guion menciona que esta táctica se utiliza para motivar a las personas a comprar nuevos artículos, a pesar de que los viejos aún sean útiles.

💡Reciclaje

El reciclaje es presentado en el video como una solución parcial al problema de la eliminación de residuos. Aunque ayuda a reducir la cantidad de desperdicios, el script argumenta que no es suficiente para abordar el núcleo del problema, ya que la mayoría de los residuos se producen en la fase de producción y muchos materiales no se pueden reciclar de manera efectiva.

💡Sistema de cierre de ciclo

Un sistema de cierre de ciclo es una alternativa sostenible al sistema lineal, que busca minimizar la generación de residuos y maximizar la reutilización de recursos. El video sugiere que este enfoque, junto con otras prácticas sostenibles, es necesario para transformar el sistema económico y crear uno que no desperdicie recursos ni personas.

💡Equidad

La equidad es un concepto clave en el video que se refiere a la justicia y la igualdad en la distribución de recursos y oportunidades. Se argumenta que el sistema actual no es equitativo, ya que algunas personas y regiones consumen desproporcionadamente y otros sufren las consecuencias, como la pérdida de recursos y la exposición a trabajos peligrosos.

Highlights

Obsessive behavior towards material possessions and the curiosity about the lifecycle of 'stuff'.

The materials economy consists of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal.

The current linear system is in crisis due to its incompatibility with a finite planet.

People and their roles are missing from the basic explanation of the materials economy.

Governments and corporations have significant influence over the materials economy.

Extraction phase leads to environmental degradation and resource depletion.

The U.S. consumes and wastes disproportionately to its population size.

The exploitation of Third World countries for resource extraction.

Health risks associated with toxic chemicals in everyday products.

Human breast milk contains high levels of toxic contaminants.

Factory workers, particularly women of reproductive age, are exposed to hazardous materials.

Economic displacement driving people into unhealthy working conditions.

Pollution from industrial production and its impact on the environment.

The strategy of keeping product prices low through externalizing costs.

Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence as drivers of consumption.

The psychological impact of advertisements on consumer self-worth.

The paradox of increased material possessions correlating with decreased happiness.

The need for a shift towards a circular economy and sustainable practices.

The potential for reclaiming and transforming the current system into one that values sustainability and equity.

Transcripts

Do you have one of these?

I got a little obsessed with mine.

In fact I got a little obsessed with all my stuff.

Have you ever wondered where all the stuff we buy, comes from

and where it goes when we throw it out?

I couldn't stop wondering about that. So I looked it up.

And what the text book said, 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. Well, I looked into it a little bit more.

In fact, I spent 10 years traveling the world,

tracking where our stuff comes from and where it goes.

And you know what I found out? That is not the whole story.

There's a lot missing from this explanation.

For one thing, this system looks like it's fine. No problem.

But the truth is it’s a system in crisis.

And the reason it is in crisis is that 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.

Every step along the way, this system is interacting with the real world.

In real life it’s not happening on a blank white page.

It’s interacting with societies, cultures, economies, the environment.

And all along the way, it’s bumping up against limits.

Limits we don't see here because the diagram is incomplete.

So lets go back through, let's fill in some of the blanks and see what's missing.

Well, one of the most important things its missing is people, yes people.

People live and work all along this system.

And some people in this system matter a little more than others;

Some have a little more say. Who are they?

Well, let’s start with the government.

Now my friends tell me I should use a tank to symbolize the government

and that’s true in many countries and increasingly in our own,

after all more than 50% of our federal tax money is now going to the military,

but I’m using a person to symbolize the government

because I hold true to the vision and values that governments should be

of the people, by the people, for the people.

It's the governments job to watch out for us, to take care of us. That’s their job.

Then along came the corporation.

Now, the reason the corporation looks bigger than the government

is bigger then the government.

Of the 100 largest economies on earth now, 51 are corporations.

As the corporations have grown in size and power, we’ve seen a little change in the government

where they’re a little more concerned in making sure

everything is working out for those guys than for us.

OK, so lets see what else is missing from this picture.

We'll start with extraction.

which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation

which is a fancy word for trashing the planet.

What this looks like is we chop down trees, we blow up mountains to get the metals inside,

we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals.

So here we are running up against our first limit.

We are running out of resources. We are using too much stuff.

Now I know this can be hard to hear, but it's the truth we’ve gotta deal with it.

In the past three decades alone,

one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. Gone.

We are cutting and mining and hauling and trashing the place so fast

that we’re undermining the planet’s very ability for people to live here.

Where I live, in the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forests left.

Forty percent of the waterways have become undrinkable.

And our problem is not just that we’re using too much stuff,

but we’re using more than our share. We have 5% of the world’s population

but we’re consuming 30% of the world’s resources and creating 30% of the world’s waste.

If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets.

And you know what? We’ve only got one.

So, my country’s response to this limitation is simply to go take somebody else’s!

This is the Third World, which – some would say –

is another word for our stuff that somehow got on someone else’s land.

So what does that look like? The same thing: trashing the place.

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.

And what about the people who live here?

Well. According to these guys, they don’t own these resources

even if they’ve been living there for generations, they don’t own the means of production

and they’re not buying a lot of stuff. And in this system,

if you don’t own or buy a lot of stuff, you don’t have value.

So, next, the materials move to “production“ and what happens there is we use energy

to mix toxic chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic contaminated products.

There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in use in commerce today.

Only a handful of them have even been tested for health impacts

and NONE have been tested for synergistic health impacts,

that means when they interact with all the other chemicals we’re exposed to every day.

So, we don’t know the full impact on health and the environment of all these toxic chemicals.

But we do know one thing: Toxics in, Toxics Out.

As long as we keep putting toxics into our inudstrial production systems,

we are going to keep getting toxics in the stuff that we bring

into our homes, and workplaces, and schools. And, duh, our bodies.

Like BFRs, brominated flame retardants.

They are a chemical that make things more fireproof but they are super toxic.

They’re a neurotoxin–that means toxic to the brain What are we even doing using a chemical like this?

Yet we put them in our computers, our appliances, couches, mattresses, even some pillows.

In fact, we take our pillows, we douse them in a neurotoxin

and then we bring them home and put our heads on them for 8 hours a night to sleep.

Now, I don’t know, but it seems to me that in this country with so much potential,

we could think of a better way to stop our heads from catching on fire at night.

Now these toxics build up in the food chain and concentrate in our bodies.

Do you know what is the food at the top of the food chain

with the highest level of many toxic contaminants? Human breast milk.

That means that we have reached a point where the smallest members of our societies - our babies

are getting their highest lifetime dose of toxic chemicals from breastfeeding from their mothers.

Is that not an incredible violation?

Breastfeeding must be the most fundamental human act of nurturing;

it should be sacred and safe. Now breastfeeding is still best

and mothers should definitely keep breastfeeding, but we should protect it. They should protect it.

I thought they were looking out for us. And of course,

the people who bear the biggest of these toxic chemicals

are the factory workers, many of whom are women of reproductive age.

They’re working with reproductive toxics, carcinogens and more.

Now, I ask you, what kind of woman of reproductive age

would work in a job exposed to reproductive toxics,

except for a woman with no other option? And that is one of the “beauties” of this system?

The erosion of local environments and economies here

ensures a constant supply of people with no other option.

Globally 200,000 people a day are moving from environments

that have sustained them for generations,

into cities, many to live in slums, looking for work, no matter how toxic that work may be.

So, you see, it is not just resources that are wasted along this system,

but people too. Whole communities get wasted.

Yup, toxics in, toxics out.

A lot of the toxics leave the factories in products,

but even more leave as by-products, or pollution. And it’s a lot of pollution.

In the U.S., our industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year

and it’s probably way more since that is only what they admit.

So that’s another limit, because, yuck,

who wants to look at and smell 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year? So, what do they do?

Move the dirty factories overseas Pollute someone else’s land!

But surprise, a lot of that air pollution is coming right back at us, carried by wind currents.

So, what happens after all these resources are turned into products?

Well, it moves here, for distribution.

Now distribution means “selling all this toxic-contaminated junk as quickly as possible.”

The goal here is to keep the prices down, keep the people buying, and keep the inventory moving.

How do they keep the prices down? Well, they don’t pay the store workers very much

and they skimp on health insurance every time they can. It’s all about externalizing the costs.

What that means is the real costs of making stuff aren’t captured in the price.

In other words, we aren’t paying for the stuff we buy.

I was thinking about this the other day.

I was walking and I wanted to listen to the news

so I popped into a Radio Shack to buy a radio.

I found this cute little green radio for 4 dollars and 99 cents.

I was standing there in line to buy this thing and I was thinking

how could $4.99 possibly capture the costs

of making this radio and getting it into my hands? The metal was probably mined in South Africa,

the petroleum was probably drilled in Iraq, the plastics were probably produced in China,

and maybe the whole thing was assembled by some 15 year old in a maquiladora in Mexico.

$4.99 wouldn’t even pay the rent for the shelf space it occupied until I came along,

let alone part of the staff guy’s salary who helped me pick it out,

or the multiple ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on.

That’s how I realized, I didn’t pay for the radio. So, who did pay?

Well. These people paid with the loss of their natural resource base.

These people paid with the loss of their clean air with increasing asthma and cancer rates.

Kids in the Congo paid with their future – 30% of the kids in parts of the Congo

now have had to drop out of school to mine coltan,

a metal we need for our cheap and disposable electronics.

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.

That is what I mean by the company owners externalize the true costs of production.

And that brings us to the golden arrow of consumption.

This is the heart of the system, the engine that drives it.

It is so important that protecting this arrow has become the top priority for both of these guys.

That is why, after 9/11, when our country was in shock,

and President Bush could have suggested any number of appropriate things:

to grieve, to pray, to hope. NO. He said to shop. TO SHOP?!

We have become a nation of consumers. Our primary identity has become that of being consumers,

not mothers, teachers, farmers, but consumers.

The primary way that our value is measured and demonstrated

is by how much we contribute to this arrow, how much we consume. And do we!

We shop and shop and shop. Keep the materials flowing, And flow they do!

Guess what percentage of total materials flow through this system is still in product or use 6 months after the date of sale in North America?

Fifty percent? Twenty? NO. One percent. One! In other words, 99 percent of the stuff

we harvest, mine, process, transport – 99 percent of the stuff we run through this system

is trashed within 6 months. Now how can we run a planet

with that level of materials throughput? It wasn’t always like this.

The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.

Ask your grandma. In her day, stewardship and resourcefulness and thrift were valued.

So, how did this happen? Well, it didn’t just happen. It was designed.

Shortly after the World War 2, these guys were figuring out how to ramp up the economy.

Retailing analyst Victor Lebow articulated the solution

that has become the norm for the whole system.

He said: "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life,

that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction,

our ego satisfaction, in consumption.

We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”

President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisors Chairman said

that "The American economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods."

MORE CONSUMER GOODS?

Our ultimate purpose? Not provide health care, or education, or safe transportation,

or sustainability or justice? Consumer goods?

How did they get us to jump on board this program so enthusiastically?

Well, two of their most effective strategies are planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence is another word for “designed for the dump.”

It means they actually make stuff to be useless as quickly as possible

so we will chuck it and buy a new one.

It’s obvious with things like plastic bags and coffee cups, but now it’s even big stuff:

mops, DVDs, cameras, barbeques even, everything! Even computers.

Have you noticed that when you buy a computer now,

the technology is changing so fast that in just a couple years,

it’s actually an impediment to communication? I was curious about this

so I opened up a big desktop computer to see what was inside. And I found out

that the piece that changes each year is just a tiny little piece in the corner.

But you can’t just change that one piece, because each new version is a different shape,

so you gotta chuck the whole thing and buy a new one.

So, I was reading industrial design journals from the 1950s when planned obsolescence

was really catching on. These designers are so open about it.

They actually discuss how fast can they make stuff break

that still leaves the consumer having enough faith in the product

to go out and buy anther one. It was so intentional.

But stuff cannot break fast enough to keep this arrow afloat,

so there’s also “perceived obsolescence.”

Now perceived obsolescence convinces us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful.

How do they do that? Well, they change the way the stuff looks

so if you bought your stuff a couple years ago,

everyone can tell that you haven’t contributed to this arrow recently

and since the way we demonstrate our value is contributing to this arrow, it can be embarrassing

Like I’ve have had the same fat white computer monitor

on my desk for 5 years. My co-worker just got a new computer.

She has a flat, shiny, sleek monitor.

It matches her computer, it matches her phone, even her pen stand.

She looks like she is driving in space ship central and I,

I look like I have a washing machine on my desk.

Fashion is another prime example of this. Have you ever wondered why women’s shoe heels

go from fat one year to skinny the next to fat to skinny? It is not because there is some debate

about which heel structure is the most healthy for women’s feet. It’s because wearing fat heels

in a skinny heel year shows everybody that you haven’t contributed to that arrow recently

so you’re not as valuable as that person in skinny heels next to you,

or, more likely, in some ad. It’s to keep buying new shoes.

Advertisements, and media in general, play a big role in this.

Each of us in the U.S. is targeted with over 3,000 advertisements a day.

We each see more advertisements in one year than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime.

And if you think about it, what is the point of an ad except to make us unhappy with what we have?

So, 3,000 times a day, we’re told that our hair is wrong, our skin is wrong,

our clothes are wrong, our furniture is wrong, our cars are wrong, we are wrong

but that it can all be made right if we just go shopping.

Media also helps by hiding all of this and all of this,

so the only part of the materials economy we see is the shopping.

The extraction, production and disposal all happen outside our field of vision.

So, in the U.S. we have more stuff than ever before,

but polls show that our national happiness is actually declining.

Our national happiness peaked in the 1950s, the same time as this consumption mania exploded.

Hmmm. Interesting coincidence.

I think I know why. We have more stuff,

but we have less time for the things that really make us happy:

friends, family, leisure time. We’re working harder than ever.

Some analysts say that we have less leisure time now than in Feudal Society.

And do you know what the two main activities are

that we do with the scant leisure time we have?

Watch TV and shop.

In the U.S., we spend 3 to 4 times as many hours shopping

as our counterparts in Europe do. So we are in this ridiculous situation

where we go to work, maybe two jobs even, and we come home and we’re exhausted

so we plop down on our new couch and watch TV and the commercials tell us “YOU SUCK”

so we gotta go to the mall to buy something to feel better, and then you gotta go to work more

to pay for the stuff you just bought so you come home and you’re more tired

so you sit down and watch more T.V. and it tells you to go to the mall again

and we’re on this crazy work-watch-spend treadmill and we could just stop.

So in the end, what happens To all the stuff we buy anyway?

At this rate of consumption, it can’t fit into our houses

even though the average house size has doubled

in this country since the 1970s. It all goes out in the garbage.

And that brings us to disposal. This is the part of the materials economy

we all know the most because we have to haul the junk out to the curb ourselves.

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, which is just a big hole in the ground,

or if you’re really unlucky, first it’s burned in an incinerator and then dumped in a landfill.

Either way, both pollute the air, land, water and, don’t forget, change the climate.

Incineration is really bad.

Remember those toxics back in the production stage?

Well burning the garbage releases the toxics up into the air.

Even worse, it makes new super toxics. Like dioxin.

Dioxin is the most toxic man made substance known to science.

And incinerators are the number one source of dioxin.

That means that we could stop the number one source of the most toxic man-made substance known

just by stopping burning the trash. We could stop it today.

Now some companies don’t want to deal with building landfills and incinerators here,

so they just export the disposal too. What about recycling? Does recycling help?

Yes, recycling helps. reduces the garbage at this end

and it reduces the pressure to mine and harvest new stuff at this end.

Yes, Yes, Yes, we should all recycle. But recycling is not enough.

Recycling will never be enough. For a couple of reasons.

First, the waste coming out of our houses is just the tip of the iceberg.

For every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb,

70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream

just to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb.

So even if we could recycle 100 percent of the waste coming out of our households,

it doesn’t get to the core of the problems. Also much of the garbage can’t be recycled,

either because it contains too many toxics, or it is designed NOT to be recyclable in the firs place

Like those juice packs with layers of metal and paper and plastic

all smooshed together. You can never separate those for true recycling.

So you see, it is a system in crisis. All along the way, we are bumping up limits.

From changing climate to declining happiness, it’s just not working.

But the good thing about such an all pervasive problem

is that there are so many points of intervention.

There are people working here on saving forests and here on clean production.

People working on labor rights and fair trade

and conscious consuming and blocking landfills and incinerators

and, very importantly, on taking back our government

so it is really is by the people and for the people.

All this work is critically important but things are really gonna start moving

when we see the connections, when we see the big picture.

When people along this system get united, we can reclaim and transform this linear system

into something new, a system that doesn’t waste resources or people.

Because what we really need to chuck is this old-school throw-away mindset.

There’s a new school of thinking on this stuff and it’s based on sustainability and equity:

Green Chemistry, Zero Waste, Closed Loop Production,

Renewable Energy, Local living Economies.

It’s already happening. Now some say it’s unrealistic, idealistic, that it can’t happen

But I say the ones who are unrealistic are those that want to continue on the old path.

That’s dreaming.

Remember that old way didn’t just happen. It’s not like gravity that we just gotta live with

People created it. And we’re people too. So let’s create something new.

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