This is a 400 page book that goes into much more depth than the short film that can be seen on the official website.

It covers the five main processes of creating stuff; extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

It is a holistic book written by Annie Leonard following a post with Greenpeace tracing how Stuff comes about and how it is disposed of. It links economics with ecology which are otherwise treated as two separate disciplines.

Portrays recycling as a white flag as the recycling process still consumes energy as well as energy in transporting recyclate from homes and businesses and distributing finished goods made from recyclate. Recycling is what you should do if all else fails i.e. the product cannot be repaired or re-used for some other function. The recycling process is still polluting and limited as paper can only be recycled a few times as paper fibres get shorter and shorter. Chemical processes of recyling paper cause more pollution than mechanical processes but the latter leads to short fibres in the paper and so can only be used for low grade paper such as newspaper or toilet paper.

Stuff is produced in developing countries not only because of cheap labour but because of cheap energy and looser environmental legislation allowing for polluting manufacturing processes that wouldn't be legal in developed countries.

Docks have had to become larger in order to accommodate huge cargo ships some as long as four football pitches. Rotterdam Docks for example.

The construction of a consumer nation has come about through advertising, mass media and planned obsolescence. In a mobile society people don't have friends and family nearby that they can call upon for favours such as lifts to hospital, babysitting, taking in parcels and feeding pets and water plants when they are on holiday so they work longer hours or strive for promotion to pay for these services which creates more unnecessary jobs for others.

Waste comes in four main categories; industrial, municipal, construction and medical. All landfills leak as the liners are perforated by items of rubbish with sharp points and liquids are formed from rain and rotting food waste called leachate. Landfills are always toxic because of PVC plastics, lead paint and nail varnish remover amongst other toxins and also foul the air. Former landfill sites can be grassed over to create parks but still remain toxic because of leaching dioxins and can shift in shape an size because nature takes over the dump to break rubbish particles down.

Incineration to provide energy is a red herring as it is inefficient and because the rubbish could be recycled instead, saving energy in processing and production of new goods from recyclate. About a quarter of the energy used in production from raw materials is used in production from recyclate material.

The short film you posted some time ago was simply brilliant.

If the book's as simple, yet as good, I'll be looking out for it.

Thanks!

The book goes into depth with the maths and science included as well as US environment legislation and I skip the legislation bit as it's not as relevant as EU and UK legislation. Quite a heavy and thought provoking book but also refreshing as it's written from a factual point of view rather than emotional or autobiographical unlike 'How to Stop Shopping' which was simply a handbag book which told me nothing at all.

Interestingly the 'Keep American Beautiful' campaign is a front group created by an industry consortium to put the responsibility on consumers and citizens to deal with waste and pollution rather than the polluters themselves, the manufacturers. Recycling is actually encouraged by manufacturers as a distraction from proposed bottle legislation which will require a returnable deposit on bottles and the responsibility of the manufacturer to collect them.

Bump.

www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproject#p/u/22/9GorqroigqM