Materials+Economy


 * Materials Economy**

“Have you ever wondered why do we need so much stuff?” Annie Leonard believes that the present model of “materials economy” is a system in crisis that does not conform to the concept of social responsible practices and sensible conservations of our environment and society. She takes us through the five steps of the “materials economy” in an effort to explain to us the flaws of the system. All the stuff that we use in everyday life goes through these 5 stages: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

Extraction deals with procurement of raw material from our planet, another word for natural resource exploitation. Annie states that we are showing a complete disregard about our planet, destroying forests, poisoning rivers and carving up mountains. This practice is brining us to the limits of our natural resources. We are using more then we consume and more than we can replenish. Only the past three decades we have used more than 1/3 of our natural resources. Annie points out that developed countries like U.S are to blame for consuming more then their share of natural resources. Now they have moved to third world countries to extract their “unused” resources. People there have no value because they do not buy stuff. Natural resources then go through production where energy mixes them up with toxic chemicals to make toxic contaminated products. Most of these products have never been tested for health impacts and most of these products end up in our homes and schools and our children. People that work in these factories are the most in risk from toxins. These are people have no other options that have moved to the cities due to the erosion of their local economies.

Distribution means selling of the contaminated products as quickly as possible. The main objective is to keep people buying, keep prices low and inventory moving. This is done through externalizing costs which means that the real cost is not captured in price. It is people that have sacrificed their lives working in low paying jobs that makes this low price possible. Another step is Consumption which is the heart of the system making us a nation of consumers. 99% of the stuff is thrashed within 6 months. Our old values of conservation, thrift are being replaced by consumerism and not by choice but by design through planed obsolescence (stuff designed for the dumb) and perceived obsolescence (changing the way stuff looks making us believe that we need new stuff). Stuff is not making us any happier because we have lees time for things that truly make us happier such as family and friends. After the stuff has been used, they are disposed. Most of the disposal goes to land fills or burned in incinerators that pollute our air (dioxins), land, water and changes our planet through global warming. Recycling presents a solution but is not enough to stop the cycle of destruction. The system should be confronted in all the stages by saving forests, cleaner productions, labor rights, fair trades, conscious consuming and blocking land fills, stopping incinerators and the most important taking back our government to guide us into this changes.