The story of stuff
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Saw this short movie today, and thought I’d share it. The full version is not available on youtube, but the first chapter is shown above, and you can catch the full movie in one piece at:
Some of the things shown are overly simplified, but then cramming even a broad explanation of a complex problem into a 20 minute short necessitates a certain amount of abbreviation. There are some little nuggets here that are revealing. Only 1% of the consumer goods purchased in the US is used 6 months after its purchase?? That’s a telling statistic! [see comments below]
On a related note, there’s a stunning documentary doing the rounds right now which I highly recommend. The movie is “Manufactured Landscapes” and it’s a documentary by Jennifer Baichwal, on the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. Baichwal follows Burtynsky on his travels as he photographs the impact of humans on the landscape. Some of the shots in the movie are scarcely believable, as the scope of industrialization in parts of our planet takes time sink in. The images will stay with you long after you’ve left the theatre. The opening tracking shot of a factory is worth the price of admission in itself. Watch, and wonder.
Brilliant video, thanks for sharing.
What’s this? A rant by a communist woman? I am surprised she didn’t drive into the scene in a Prius with a baby seal t-shirt chewing on organic carrots.
[I am yet to watch the full move you linked to above; I'll reserve further judgement until after I watch it.]
Here’s a clip from “Manufactured Landscapes”, a brilliant film, great photography.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=67j7JlEZzpQ
You can scroll though and stop at any shot, just wonderful.
This little factoid did not ring true to me. I know the typical American lifestyle is very wasteful, but still 1% seemed too little. So I read the fine print a bit and found that the actual supporting data is somewhat broader in scope. In the film-maker’s annotated script, the actual source quoted, Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism has this to say:
I found another error which I’ve written to them about, but on the whole, it’s still a commendable effort.
Hi,
Thanks for blogging about Story of Stuff. I just wanted to clarify that the 1% statement in our film is that “1% of TOTAL MATERIALS FLOW” not 1% of consumer goods. You can read the exact script and the references and additional explainations on the Storyofstuff.com website. I know the 1% is hard to believe, but that number includes all the upstream waste created, all the water contaminated, all the energy used, all the mine tailings and all the materials in the making of the stuff we buy. I don’t know what the number is for the percentage of stuff that we buy that is tossed soon. In the book “Gone Tomorrow” Heather Rogers quotes Neil Seldman saying that 80% of products produced in the U.S. are for one time use. I’m not sure what the exact number is, but clearly, we’re using and wasting and replacning our stuff at a far faster rate than ever before and it is just not sustainable.
CHeers
Annie Leonard
Thanks for clarifying that. The 1% has been bothering me too ever since I read this blog.
Recently, I read something related to this is in a magazine “Common Ground” January 2008 issue. It had an article which says according to ASID(American Society of Interior Designers), 90 percent of everything manufactured in this country ends up in the landfills within one year. This stat itself was too shocking to me and I felt this number was not telling the entire story. Although, there is plenty of discarded things and furniture, I felt 90% was a very high number until I came across that only 1% is retained after 6 months, which was even more shocking.
The thing to note according to ASID is that for every one truckload of goods manufactured, 32 truckloads of waste are produced.
Here’s the link to the article in Common Ground.
http://commongroundmag.com/2008/01/greenscene0801.html