Here is where you will post your reflection in response to the Story of Stuff.
Your reflection should be about a page long and should address the following questions:
1. In the system, discuss how everything is related to everything else.
2. How did the movie make you feel.
3. What do you think we could do as a school to change the situation you saw portrayed in the movie.
This reflection is due by Monday, April 7th.
Just in case you want to see the movie again, you can click here.
46 comments:
The story of stuff
In the video, The Story of Stuff, I learned about the process that the world (mostly the U.S.) lives on. It’s called a Materials Economy. This process has five main parts, they are: Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and then disposal. This system is a liner system; this means that after disposal you don’t circle back to the beginning. This system has many flaws, one flaw is that we live on a finite planet; this means we have limits. Using the system we have today will soon use up all of our resources.
Each part in the Materials Economy system is related to each other. It starts with Extraction; Extraction takes natural resources and brings it to the next phase Production. Production takes energy to mix toxins in with the natural resources. In the video, Annie Leonard (the woman presenting the system) expresses that all the toxins that get mixed into are bad, which is not true, many of these toxins help us or prevent us from danger when using the certain products. Some toxins though may not be bad for us when we use the products, but during incineration (disposal) the toxins can be harmful to the environment.
After the Production step is Distribution. Distribution is the selling of products. Corporations want to keep the products moving, to do this they lower the cost. In order to lower the cost they don’t pay their workers enough, and they externalize the costs. An externalized cost is when you don’t pay for the shipping, the parts, the employee’s health care, or the shelf space it took before you bought it.
After the product has gone through Distribution it’s in the Consumption phase; that means someone bought it. Consumption is a big part of our economy; it’s gotten so big that when you’re wearing old things people notice that you haven’t contributed to the flow of the materials economy system and make fun of you. This makes people go out to buy more; every day one person makes 4.5lbs of garbage per day!
Once everything is thrown away it goes to Disposal. Disposal takes the garbage and puts into landfill. Sometimes the garbage gets incinerated then put into the landfill. Incineration is bad because all the harmful toxins from production get burned into the air and pollutes. Every step of the materials Economy is harmful to the environment or even people.
This movie really made me notice that consumption really isn’t the best hobby. I love shopping; I never really paid much attention the amount that gets thrown away once it’s served its purpose. From watching this movie I’ll be conscious to buy the things that I need rather than what I would like to have. Everyone wants to have new things and you can’t stop this consumption process; there already people working out the flaws in this system to make it more practical. One thing PVC can do is have clothing drives or toy drives. Doing this would get rid of the things we don’t need and supplying the demand of another persons need. -LadyInPink001
I made a mistake! I was wondering why my comment was so long when I realized it was more of a summary than a reflection!
This video the story of stuff was based on a process called the Materials Economy. There are five parts to this system. Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal. The first step is extraction. It takes our natural resources like fresh water trees, and animal and that brings it the the next step Production. It takes energy and it mixes toxins in with the natural resources. Next is the distribution step. Distribution is selling things. High quality stores like Wal Mart, Target, etc. want to keep the products moving and they do this by lowering there cost and in order to lower there costs they don't pay there employees enough. After distribution is consumption which a.k.a. someone bought it. Its a big part in this process. For example people keep advertising new things that in within the next 6 months you would of got rid of the thing you bought six months ago. Thats how fast you get rid of it. The next and final step is disposal it takes all that garbage from the dump and puts it into landfill.
This movie made me feel like kind of a different person. It made me feel like a different person because of the bad things going on in our country/world. Like that we cut down thousands of trees each day from the amazon. Also that 1/3 of our natural resources are gone. Less than 4% of forests left, etc. So yeah this movie made me feel also kind of worried about our world and whats going to happen if we keep this up.
What we can do as a school is try not to waste all of our school supplies because if we throw out more of our supplies all of our garbage is just going to go strait to the landfill. So thats one idea.
Story of Stuff Reflection
We saw a movie called the story of stuff. She basically taught us about the materials economy. The materials economy is extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. These things are all related to each other. Here is how they work. In a less fancy word extraction is trashing the planet. It takes our natural resources. We are now running out of resources and we need to fix it. We are using to much stuff. One third of the planets natural resources are gone. If everyone kept this rater we would need to three to five planets which we don’t have! The next stage is production. It gets energy and mixes toxins in along with the natural resources. A lot of products are leaving factories being toxic and polluting the atmosphere. The next stage is distribution. Distribution is selling all the products that are toxic. They sell it at a low price to keep people buying. They keep the prices down by not paying the people that work at the stores a high amount of money. They externalize the cost. We're not really paying for the items. The people paid with the lost of their natural resources, the risk of increased cancer, and by having no health insurance. All these people helped to make the cost of items lower. The next stage is consumption. This means a lot of people have become consumers. We keep the materials flowing by shopping. Most of the products after 6 months are trashed. The people that make the items make it like this so the people keep coming back to shop. This is called planned obsolescence. Another thing is perceived obsolescence. This convinces us to throw away stuff that can still be used. Everyone thinks that we have not contributed to the "arrow" so this can be embarrassing. The next stage is disposal. All the stuff that we throw away gets dumped in the land fill or burned then dumped. This pollutes the air and climate! It makes other toxics. Recycling helps but it will never be enough. After hearing this movie it made me feel disappointed. If this keeps up pretty soon we won't have an earth anymore. I think as a school we should stop buying all these computers every single year. Yes, I think we should have a lot of computers to learn and work with. But we shouldn't chuck the ones that still work. This is just an idea to have P.V.C help this situation.
The Story of Stuff: Reflection
Watching "The Story of Stuff” really helped me to understand how we get the things that we have. I think that the way that the show was presented was very interesting and easy to understand. The graphics were really entertaining and I liked the way Annie Leonard explained everything. There are so many ways that people can help make the old system into a new one that can last.
How is everything related to everything else?
There is a whole process that explains how everything is related to each other. This is how it works:
Extraction --> Production --> Distribution --> Consumption --> Disposal
But, this is not the whole story. There are many things along the way that this system affects. It interacts with society, culture and the environment each step of the way. The problem is that this is a linear system. We live on a planet that does not have infinite resources and you cannot run a linear system forever on our planet.
First, we extract resources from the environment. We chop down trees, destroy mountains and use up water. In just three decades, one third of Earth’s natural resources have been used up. The next step is production. We use energy and toxins to make the products we use. The people who work in factories are in a very bad position. They are exposed to incredibly dangerous toxins every day. The third step is distribution. The goal of distribution is to keep prices down, people buying and the industry moving. Annie Leonard said that when she bought a radio for only $4.99, she realized that she was not the one who was really paying for it. It was the people who had lost their space and clean air. Then we move on to consumption. This is the “golden arrow”. Consumption is when we shop! We are a nation of consumers and that is what we are known for! We do 3-4 times as much shopping as people do in Europe. The last step of this system is disposal. We have to haul out the trash, but do we even know where it goes? Sometimes it goes to landfills, where the trash is just dumped into the ground. But sometimes the garbage is burned in an incinerator first. This is terrible because the toxins that were used in the production stage are going back into the air again, but worse!
All these things are related to each other, but they are related in a line. We need them to be linked in a circle.
How did the movie make me feel?
This movie was very inspiring. I was shocked from some of the statistics that Annie Leonard explained. She said that 2,000 trees a minute were being cut down in the Amazon Rainforest alone! That is 7 football fields of trees in only one minute being destroyed. Four billion pounds of toxins (and maybe even more) a year are being put into the air. I was absolutely stunned. Some pillows are doused in B.F.R.’s (a neurotoxin) and then we put our heads on them all night! While I was watching the movie, I thought that Leonard had hit the nail on the head. She really understood what was happening, and that inspired me to help fix this problem.
What could we do as a school to change the situation portrayed in the movie?
I think that we could have a fund-raiser and give the money we make to organizations like “Earthrights International”, “Clean Production Action”, and/or “Global Footprint Network”. We could always recycle! Students could bring lunchboxes instead of paper or plastic bags. Spreading awareness always can help. In science, we could make posters informing people about this situation and hang them up around the school. All of these examples would help change the condition portrayed in the movie.
We, as people do not have to affect this system in a bad way. If we try, we can transform this system into a sustainable process with renewable energy and green production.
This video was a great way to spread the word on the "unfortunate truth" of our manufacturing methods.(pun intended).
The host, Annie Leonard, explains the system of our production process. She says there are 5 steps in the story of stuff. Number 1 is "Extraction". This is where we get resources for our products. Number 2 is "Production". In this stage, the stuff from the Extraction is now put to use. Number 3 is "Distribution". The product is now sold to people at stores. Number 4 is "Consumption". The product is used by a consumer. Number 5 is "Disposal" after the product is used, it is thrown away.
The stages seem innocent at first, but as each stage has its downfalls, the bigger picture has a major impact on everyone. For an example, in the Extraction stage, the materials harvested form the earth are there, but as we keep taking them, we keep eating up the planet as if we live on a finite planet. Next, in the production stage, we have the materials put together and made into a product. But to make most of these products, we need to use deadly toxins. In the Distribution stage, we under cut prices to encourage buying. The Consuming stage keeps the whole thing going. The thing that doesn't work though, is that we consume way to much, and never stop. Last, in the Disposal stage, we throw our stuff out and are done with it. But, we barely save anything and most of it is burned up and put into land fills.
We need to do somthing, but I'm not sure yet
A few days ago we watched a video called, “The story of Stuff.” The video was based on a process called the materials economy. There are five steps to this system. These steps are extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. Extraction takes away our natural resources like trees, clean water, and animals. The next step is production. Production takes our resources and mixes them with toxins to create a product. After they create that product they sell it to stores like Wal-Mart, target, Sears, ect. Those stores want to keep the products moving so they don’t pay their employees a lot. That is called distribution. After that is consumption. Consumption is the most important part. It’s when the customers but the stores product. The last step is disposal. Disposal is when they take all the garbage from the dump and put it into a landfill or burn it then put it into a landfill. When they do that it pollutes the air and the water.
The movie was very inspiring. The thing that shocked me most was that 2,000 trees are being cut down in the Amazon rainforest every minute. And that 80 percent of our rainforests are gone. Also the government admitted to letting out about 4,000,000 pounds of pollution and toxic chemicals. This movie made me very worried about our environment and what would happen if we kept this up.
To help the environment we could plant more trees at our school and try to reuse materials as much as possible. We should also have a fundraiser to raise money that we could give to an organization that helps the environment.
-THiNKPiNK21
'The Story of Stuff' Reflection
The movie, The Story of Stuff, really helped me understand how Americans go through a process called the Materials Economy, buying something, then the disposing of the product. I thought this movie was really interesting and really taught me something about our planet. I liked the presentation of this movie, Annie Leonard and the graphics, and really liked the message coming from it. I never really realized the process in how we live.
In the system how is everything related to each other?
Well, the system is called the Materials Economy. The materials economy interacts with society, culture and the environment every step of the way. In this system, there are fives steps. The five steps are Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and Disposal. We work on a linear system and live on a planet with infinitive resources. We can not survive forever with a linear system on a planet such as ours.
In this step, extraction, people are just trashing the planet. We are cutting down trees, using our drinking water and destroying mountains. This is called natural resource exploration. Because of extraction, 1/3 of natural resources are already gone. We are literally loosing 2,000 trees per minutes. Is that necessary? 40% of drinking water has gone bad and 4% of forests are left.
After getting the natural resources, the next step is production. In the production step, we use energy, natural resources and toxins to create toxin contaminated products. These are things we use, such as pillows. Factory workers are getting highly contaminated with toxins to create something toxic for other people to use. As Annie Leonard said, “toxics in, toxics out.” Toxics leave in products and byproducts of pollution.
After creating the toxic junk, the third step is distribution. Distribution means selling all of the toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible. The goal here is to keep the prices down, keep people buying and to keep the inventory moving. To keep the prices down, companies don’t pay the store workers a fair amount and skimp on health insurance any time they can. Its all about externalizing the cost. This means that the real cost of making stuff isn’t captured in the real price. In other words, we aren’t paying for the stuff we buy, workers and insurance companies are.
After selling all of the products, the fourth step is consumption. Consumption is the heart or “golden arrow” of the system. 99% of the stuff we make is trashed within six months of its purchase. There are two terms associated with consumption:
PLANNED OBSOLESCENSE: designed for the dumps. (Products include, coffee cups, computers, etc…)
PERCEIVED OBSOLECENSE: forcing you to buy new stuff. (Ads, fashion and electronics encourage this). The system in which we live on is:
WORK (get tired)
WATCH T.V. (see ads)
SHOP!!!!!
The united states National Happiness is declining because we have more stuff, but less time.
After consuming the products, the last and final step is disposal. An average family disposes 4 ½ pounds of garbage a day. This garbage either goes to landfills or incinerators. Incineration is burning the garbage and releasing toxins into the air. Incinerators release DIOXIN which is the worst manmade toxin. Recycling helps, but not enough. 1 garbage can= 70 garbage cans used to make the product.
All of these steps are related to one another. Getting materials, creating products, selling products, buying the products and disposal of the products. If people unite, the system can be transformed. We need this system to become a circle, not a line of steps.
How did the movie make you feel?
The movie made me feel like consuming really isn’t good for the environment. I love shopping but this movie made me feel that shopping for unnecessary things that I already have can really hurt our environment. It taught me that there are many steps that workers go through to create one thing that I buy. The thing might not last very long, but it still took so much effort and hard work to create. This movie made me feel a little bit guilty about how I am treating our earth by just purchasing one shirt, for example, that I will maybe get use out of for 1 year. This movie also inspired me to work harder to raise awareness and fix the problem myself.
What do you think we could do as a school to change the situation you saw portrayed in the movie?
There are various things we can do at P.V.C. to change the situation I saw portrayed in the movie. We could fundraise for different foundations that benefit helping this system, environmental causes and global warming. We could also have assemblies or informational booths at school for the other grades addressing this problem. We could create signs, posters and brochures to hand out or hang around the school. Doing this, we can raise awareness so maybe other people can learn about our earths future.
-dance4peacexo
In the movie we saw in class I learned about Materials Economy. These are Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and disposal. Every thing is related to every thing because we take stuff from the environment like trees and water then we sent to the industry to make stuff and then sell it. People that work in the industry and out of it are getting sick because of toxins.
I think that seeing this video was great because know you know what situation we have and explains what is going on in the world and also makes us think about the situation a better. Its makes use think of the stuff we cause and how we can get better and stop this from happening.
I think we can put more recycling bins and maybe put together a team at pvc a recycling group that picks up trash and cleans up the outside.
Everything in the Materials Economy system is related to one another because the system can’t work without one another. It starts off with Extraction which is when we are taking too much of the world’ natural resources which can lead to mountains being blown up to get metal, trees being cut down, water being used up, and wiping out many animals. Then all of this stuff goes into Production. Production is when we take the resources and that is when we use energy to mix toxic chemicals in with the world’s natural resources to make products that are toxic contaminated. Then it goes to Distribution. This is when we take the toxic contaminated products and sell them as quickly as possible to keep the inventory moving. Then comes Consumption. Consumption is when we start to eat and to shop which keep the materials going out of the stores and to the people. After that comes Disposal. This is the part when the stores sell the stuff then take the same thing and make it look different so that people can buy more stuff. So the stuff that the people once had that would still be perfectly useful would be thrown out and be replaced. Then the items get either buried into a big hole in the ground or will be incinerated or sometimes even both. When the items get incinerated it causes Dioxin which is the most toxic man-made substance. Plus another way that this the stuff in this system is related to one another is because all of it has to do with getting people to buy items.
The way that this movie made me feel was really bad. That it is basically our fault since we are the people that are causing this since we are always buying new stuff which end up replacing perfectly useable items that we end up throwing away. But I think that this movie is a really good idea since it get tell people what is going on with the world and why it is bad. So this system can still be reversed and be turned into a good thing instead of being bad for the world. Also it makes me feel angry at the government for they way that they are treating the environment and even people. They way that the government is taking away the world’s natural resources and how much of it is really bad for the Earth. Also, how they are treating people just because if they contributed to paying in stores.
One thing that we could do as a school is to change the situation that we saw in the movie is to waste less. We could use both sides of the paper in our notebooks, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, and most importantly to repair and to fix our stuff rather than to replace the items that we use. The more that we re-use instead of replace all of our items the better all this will be for the world. Another thing that we could do is to make flyers or posters that can alert the kids at the school to what the Materials Economy is doing to the Earth’s natural resources.
Reflection
By Katherine Sanchez
Text books don’t say much about how we consume things, dispose, or even get the product. Well, there’s more to it than just that. There’s: Where does the product come from? How is it made? What effects does it give to us? How it’s used? Where does it end up after we’ve used it? It all adds up to what is happening now and will continue to happen if we don’t do something about it and soon. Global Warming. You’ve seen how the ice is melting and you’re like yeah whatever but it’s not supposed to be like that. Let me reexplain how this is contributing to Global Warming. First, we extract the natural resources. But we’re using too much and too much of what we don’t need at all. So, if that area we are extracting resource from gets contaminated, then we move to cleaner spaces but that pollution just comes right back. Eighty percent of natural forests are gone, completely gone. And why is that? Because we use too
much paper and don’t recycle enough. The government thinks that if you don’t own the land, which they can just consume it. So it’s more like, you don’t own, no value. Even if you’ve been living on that land for generations before. Then there’s Processing it. It may be that steel goes in that way, then comes out railings or something, but that’s not the whole truth. Through the process, there are chemicals that are put in and chemicals that are released. There is over100, 000 synthetic chemicals known but there’s more that the government won’t admit. One known chemical is BFR. This chemical is used in pillows. So you practically sleep in chemicals eight hours a day. Byproducts are being dumped in the air, contaminating it even more that it already is.Chemicals are also inhaled by accident. Breast-feeding has become a problem because now babies are in danger of the high dose of toxic chemicals that are in the milk. Since people are being taken out of their natural habitats, where do they go? Toxic Waste. That’s what. People are forced to move and go work in places that are in high contamination of toxic chemicals. Who are most of those people? Woman, reproductive women. Then comes the next step: Sell all that is produced as quickly as possible. And out of that comes externalizing cost we litterly don’t pay for what we bought because at the price we bought that product, it’s double. Who pitched in? The people living in those environments that are now contaminated, having to work in toxic jobs and are very contaminated. Then after everything is bought, the Golden Arrow arrives. That’s all we focus on; The Golden Arrow. After 911, President George W. Bush could have said pray, give, try to get over it, but instead do you know what he said? SHOP< SHOP AND SHOP!!!!!! Now, 99% of the things we buy are no longer useful. This was designed to happen by the government so that after 6 months we throw out what we bought and buy something new. Perceive obsolescence is where they manufactures change the way things look so you’ll feel like a fool and go by that product. The media plays a big part in the “I feel like a fool for not having . . . ” Before in 1950 we receive as much as 3000 commercials in a lifetime, now we receive as much as 3000 a month or year? Since 1950, the nation’s happiness has gone down because we no longer have time for the important stuff like playing, loving, hobbies and stuff like that, instead we shop, work for what we bought, watch tv and be told we are stupid for not having that, sleep, shops, work for ...........it’s one huge cycle that we just have to stop and get out of. The last part the products cycle is disposal. We know this the best because we are the actual ones who have to pull the garbage onto the curb but what we don’t know, is what happens after the garbage is pulled onto the streets. The daily household has a much as 4 ½ pounds a day of garbage a day, which is no good to the environment. Its put in a landfill but sometimes it’s burned then put in a landfill. That burning releases chemicals into the air but this time the chemicals are much more toxic. Now, if we wanna change all this bad stuff happening we got to stop shopping for things we don’t need at all, recycle as much as possible, it all depends on us.
I thought that this video was very fundamental and that it explained more than we thought happened. It was very interesting and contained a lot of facts. I’m one of those people who will like hit a person who doesn’t recycle paper or reuse it.(Just kidding) I try to help the environment as much as I can. And I totally agree with this video. The system of shopping here is in CRISIS.
I think that the school can do a lot of things to help with the environment. Like for example, tell people to stop their motors when their waiting for their kids to not contaminate the environment, we could also do much more recycling, and use biodegradable cleaning products so I’d be a better help to the environment.
xoxoxo DuH!95 outt but on AIM
StoryOfStuff Reflection
We saw the movie called the story of stuff. She basically taught us about the materials economy. The five parts of the materials economy are extraction, production, distribution, consumption, to disposal. All of these different parts are very different from each other, but they all relate in some way, and they all fit together like a puzzle to keep this train moving. This train is NOT the best option for the U.S. people, but it is still going on and she is trying to tell people why this system isn't working for our planet.
Extraction relates to everything else because this is where everything is found. Without Extraction, none of these other parts could to their job. Extraction is the base of this train, and it gets all the materials it needs to work. Production relates because it is taking the materials found by the extraction workers, taking that and making something, then passing it along to distribution. Distribution is related because it is where the people that are on all of the 5 steps and everyone else, can come and actually buy the product that has been made in the production step. Consumption is the most important step. Consumption is when the people take all of the stuff they buy and take it home to use it. This relates because that is when all of those steps actually goes to the place it it supposed to be. Even thought only 1% of everything we buy is actually kept. Disposal is the last step. That step relates to everything else by taking all of those steps before it, and throwing it in the garbage.
This movie made me feel very bad that this is what the government chose do to the the people, and the planet. I don't know why people would design things to be cheap, just so they will throw it out and get a new one to keep the production line running. It annoys me that basically every factory and brand is just trying to rip us off! All of their slogans are just lies. And you see all of their commercials that say, "We want the best quality we can make." Yeah right! All you want to do is make things that LOOK high quality, but they either brake, or they make a newer, more prettier version so you will throw it out and make a new one. It totally makes me think.
Something P.V.C. can do, is not buy so much stuff! I don't really buy a lot of stuff but I know lots of people that spoil their kids and just get their whatever they want just because they have the money. The market is making so much junk that isn't necessary at all. But kids ask for it just because they know that their parents will buy it for them. So what kids can do is not watch so many commercials, and stop consuming. Play with your old toys, go outside! You don't need to much stuff. Parents can stop spoiling their kids, and only buy the stuff that matters.
-Pie82
The Story of Stuff
Reflection
Stuff-noun
1. The material out of which something is made or formed; substance.
This movie really helped me understand all about stuff. Doesn’t that sound so broad? All about “stuff”. But there is really more to “stuff” then you would think. It goes through a whole process called the Materials Economy.
The making, using and getting ride of “stuff” goes through a huge cycle, extraction, production, distribution, consumption and finally, disposal. According to Annie Leonard, this cycle is out of whack, which I agree with.
In the part of the cycle, extraction, we are totally wasting resources by cutting by trees, blowing up mountains (I didn’t know that was possible), polluting water and killing off animals. We, as Americans, have used up one third of the world’s natural resources!
Then with production, we are giving people awful working conditions with toxic chemicals. We are also putting toxic chemicals in a lot of the products, including pillows. Imagine sleeping on toxic pillows every night! As Annie Leonard says “Toxics in, toxics out.” We intoxicate our products and we pollute the air. How are these two parts related? Well, we are totally ruining clean environments, which used to give homes to people. But now that we have ruined them they are forced to live in the poorest parts of the city, looking for jobs, no matter how unclean and how full of toxic.
The next stage is distribution. We pay small amounts of money for things that other people around the world have worked so hard on that we will through away in six months.
Then there’s consumption, the “golden arrow”, also known as, shopping. Since in most of the world your importance is measured on how much you contribute to this “golden arrow” that keeps people shopping. The designers are very smart and they have two plans, planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence means, “Designed for the dump”. Things like coffee cups, plastic bags, but now they are even doing it to things like computers! Then perceived obsolescence is making you want to through out things that are perfectly useable. Things like clothes and technology. Since our importance is measured by how much we contribute to the arrow, we buy the new stuff to make ourselves have more importance.
The last step is disposable. Where does that 4 and ½ pounds of garbage per family a day go? Well, it goes into landfills, incinerators or to other countries. Incinerators release toxins into the air called Dioxins. These are the most dangerous toxins known to science! If we could just stop using incinerates, this system would already be better.
These are all related, how? Well, for one thing, they are all ruining this planet. We’re affecting people, animals and the environment all in a negative way. So, how good could this system really be? We need to fix his problem, and fast.
How does this make you feel?
Personally, this movie made me feel really guilty. I personally, love shopping. But now I realize that I should lay off of shopping for a while. I don’t want to hurt any animals, I want to conserve resources and I definitely don’t want to deprive humans of healthcare. It also really inspired me to try and help this system in crisis. I’ll recycle more and maybe just learn more about ways I can help.
In P.V.C, I think we should just be more caring generally. Maybe plant more flowers, or shop less, or donate money to organizations. We’re living in this ignorant bubble, where all we care about is shopping! It’s ridiculous. We should make more of an effort to help.
ummmmmmmm MR.Ardiro can you erase my name on my blog thing????
ooopppsssss :/
Story of Stuff Reflection
The story of stuff is about how the system of how the things that we buy or own are made, sold to us and thrown away. This system is called the Linear System and there are 5 steps to it. The system goes like this: Extraction, Production, Distribution, and Consumption, than Disposal. Extraction is what affects the forests and resources. It is when we TAKE things from the earths natural resources to use for our products. Production is pretty self-explanatory, it’s in the name! It is when we PRODUCE, or make the products. This is the part of the Linear System that is contributing to global warming the most because of all the pollution coming from the factories. Next is Distribution. Distribution is when the stores buy the products from the factories and sell or DISTIBUTE the items all over the world to people. This is where we get involved. We go down to a store and see something we like, so we buy it and CONSUME it. This is the Consumption part of the system. It’s when we actually use the things we buy in our home. Suddenly, after we feel like what we consumed is out of style or bad, we throw it out or DISPOSE it. Disposal is the last part of the system. It is when we throw out the things that we buy. They either get recycled, put in a land fill, or incinerated. Incineration is the worst for the environment.
All though all these things seem different, they are all related. Extraction and Production are related because they are both bad for the environment, along with Disposal, with the exception of recycling. Distribution and Consumption are related because they both involve purchasing. The companies that make the products sell them to the distributors, and then the distributors sell them to us. Overall, the 2 things that relate are pollution and purchasing, which are also related. Because we go and drive our cars to go and purchase something, we are polluting the environment further.
I didn’t really like the movie but it did tell me some things and open my eyes to what happens before and after I go to the store to buy my candy bar, etc. Did you know that because we cut down so many trees to use for our products, only 4% of natural forests are left and that we are losing about 2,000 trees per minute just in the Amazon alone? This is really bad. One thing that really affected me was that there is a cycle that Americans go through because of ads that makes us want to buy. It goes like this: So, we go to work and work really hard and make a lot of money. We go home and are really tired so we go and watch TV and on TV, we see ads which tell us we are WRONG and have wrong clothes, wrong computers, wrong music, etc. So we go to the mall to buy the RIGHT stuff so we’re cool. Then we have to work HARDER and are more TIRED so we watch more TV and then buy MORE clothes and it just continues. That really hit me as being bad.
We can make this system into a “Green System” as Annie Leonard said. As she said, because of this system, we are losing forests, having environmental problems, and becoming a “shopoholic” nation. We NEED to change this, and the time is now. Just us as a school can change it, too. For example, we can buy organically made products that don’t exactly work on the system. As Annie Leonard said, “The old way didn’t just happen. It isn’t like gravity that we just have to live with. People created it, and we’re people to, so let’s create something new.”
-By GreenMango
In class recently we watched The Story of Stuff. (Although most of the people reading this already know that…) And know everyone has to do a reflection. (Also obvious) So here’s mine.
Question Uno: In the system, discuss how everything is related to everything else. All right, so let’s start with Extraction. Extraction is a big word for natural resource exploitation, which is big shot talk for trashing the planet. Basically what that means is we chop down all of the trees, bore through the mountains for metal, drain the rivers and wipe out the animals. Then we take all of the natural resources and combine them with toxics, which is Production. Then you take the toxic contaminated products and put them in stores (Distribution), keeping prices low so people buy by externalizing costs. So you aren’t really paying for any part of what you buy, but anyone who was involved in the production does. So someone buys the toxic product and brings it home to use. That’s Consumption. After the consumer is done with the product, most of which is gone in a six month period, they trash it. The garbage men pick it up and bring it to the dump. (Disposal) Then the garbage is either heaped into a landfill or burned then put into a landfill. I think that covers the first question.
Question number 2: How did the movie make you feel? Well it made me mad at the people who CAME UP with this! In fact, it makes me fuming mad! Especially because it’s MY generation that has to clean it up. And a lot of pressure is being put on us to clean it. It just ANGERS me! Gr.
And that brings us to Number 3: What do you think we could do as a school to change the situation you saw portrayed in the movie. There’s multiple thing we could do to help. One thing we could do is having better recycling bins, such as one for paper, one for plastic and one for metal. Another thing we could do is clean up days, where the students would go around the school, and maybe even the town, and pick up garbage. That’s my two cents.
I’m out!
The video "Story of Stuff" taught me so many things that I never knew. The video taught me how the materials Economy works in America. The video taught me so much about our planet how it goes the same process everyday. That process is extraction>production>distribution>consumption>disposal. I thought that the movie was really easy to understand and that Annie Leonard made everything about the Material Economy easy and clear to understand. I never realized the process that we go through EVERY day.
The system, Materials Economy everything is related to each other. In the end of the process everything goes back to first starting out as natural resources on our planet such as trees. In the system when people have to go to work to make money, they come back home after work and sit down in front of the television because they are tired. What they see on T.V. are ads about clothing, appliances etc. These ads make the people want to go buy the things that they see on T.V. Then they go to the store this is the distribution part of the system. The people then use the money that they just earned at work to buy the things that they saw on T.V. Then the process starts all over again for millions of people. This is how all of the people take part in the Material Economy.
The movie made me feel really surprised and also that consuming excess products can really hurt the environment. I love shopping but when I realized that it isn't good for the environment it made me think that shopping probably/does have an impact on global warming. Everything in the material Economy leads up to shopping or the "golden arrow". Everybody always wants to stay in style so they go shopping to get the newest things. Because so many people are buying these things it all ends up in the garbage someday, which adds to pollution in the air.
wait thats not the whole thing!!!!!
The video "Story of Stuff" taught me so many things that I never knew. The video taught me how the materials Economy works in America. The video taught me so much about our planet how it goes the same process everyday. That process is extraction>production>distribution>consumption>disposal. I thought that the movie was really easy to understand and that Annie Leonard made everything about the Material Economy easy and clear to understand. I never realized the process that we go through EVERY day.
The system, Materials Economy everything is related to each other. In the end of the process everything goes back to first starting out as natural resources on our planet such as trees. In the system when people have to go to work to make money, they come back home after work and sit down in front of the television because they are tired. What they see on T.V. are ads about clothing, appliances etc. These ads make the people want to go buy the things that they see on T.V. Then they go to the store this is the distribution part of the system. The people then use the money that they just earned at work to buy the things that they saw on T.V. Then the process starts all over again for millions of people. This is how all of the people take part in the Material Economy.
The movie made me feel really surprised and also that consuming excess products can really hurt the environment. I love shopping but when I realized that it isn't good for the environment it made me think that shopping probably/does have an impact on global warming. Everything in the material Economy leads up to shopping or the "golden arrow". Everybody always wants to stay in style so they go shopping to get the newest things. Because so many people are buying these things it all ends up in the garbage someday, which adds to pollution in the air. I would have never thought that shopping would add to global warming because of all of the processes that have to happen to make products. I was surprised about this whole process, before this video I had no idea that shopping added to global warming and what the process is in the Material Economy.
This movie opened my eyes to so many new things and made me realize that too much shopping/consumption can lead to bad things. I never really thought about how much stuff actually gets thrown away and how it is bad for our environment. So many things add to making our environment worse and worse. So i don't think that this should be one more thing. Something that P.V.C could do is to recycle the supplies that the school doesn't use anymore and donate it to schools that need those things instead of throwing them out.
The story of stuff
In the movie we watched in school called the story of stuff. This was a good movie to show us because it is all the things that we need to know about the world around us and what is happening. We all should know what is causing this big problem.
Every thing related to everything because it is a cycle. It starts out as accretion, then projections, then distribution, then the golden arrow, then consumption, and lastly disposal. It starts out on the earth then it gets sent to a place/factory. After the factory it is sent to a store, people buy it. After the people buy it then the people take it home but once they take it home in about 6 months they will throw it out because there is a cool new thing out. But no one thinks of what is behind the toy. Kids in other countries drop out of school so we can have all of the things that we need.
The movie mad me feel really really bad for what we are doing and what we are making a lot of the other countries do. I am willing to do anything to get global warming to stop or be better. But I know that a lot of the materialistic people probably wont give up there furs or food or shopping every day. But that is my opinion. I cant take much more of what is happening. What I have started to do is pick up more garbage when I see it. Who else is going to do it is just making matters worse.
I think PVC can make up a system so once we get a notebook in the beginning of the year we cant throw it out and get a new notebook there needs to be a real reason. Also there could be one day every month we all go to different places and pick up garbage and clean up. There are so many things that PVC can do to help this problem.
I feel really strongly about what is happening to the earth because there is only 1. We are the only things that can help his problem so we should make a bigger and better difference. I hope you feel the way I do!
The Story of Stuff
Ever wonder why you have so much stuff? Where it comes from? Where it goes? There is actually an answer to all of these questions, but it probably isn’t what you think it is. Stuff goes through a system called “Materials Economy”. This system is made up of three parts: Extraction (the taking of stuff from the environment), Production (the making of stuff from the stuff taken from the environment), Distribution (the selling of stuff), Consumption (the buying of stuff), and Disposal (getting rid of stuff you don’t “need”). Sounds simple right? Well, what you don’t know is that this system is EXTREMELY harmful on the environment and on people. Let me explain what’s REALLY behind the system.
Extraction is the very beginning of the system. This is when we take natural resources from the environment to make things from it. What you don’t know is the destruction that is going on while we are extracting these resources. We pollute rivers, we blow up mountains, we cut down whole forests and in the process of all this kill thousands and thousands of animals (because we have destroyed their homes). In the US alone, 40% of the waterways are polluted and unusable. 80% of the world’s forests are gone. 30% of ALL of the natural resources are gone. Scary right?
Production is the next part of the system. This is where all of the natural products come to get made into other things to be sold to us. A lot of chemicals go into the making of these products. There are 100,000 toxic or synthetic chemicals that go into the making of these products. Only some of all of these chemicals have been tested, and a smaller number have been tested to see if they work with other chemicals without causing a huge explosion. So who is going to work with all of these potentially harmful chemicals? Well the people who were pushed out of their homes because of the environment destroying don’t have anywhere to go but into the cities. Since they don’t have much experience in cities, they are put into the least liked jobs. Factory Working. Doesn’t seem fair does it?
The third step is Distribution. This is when the stuff is sold off to the general public. This part of the system definitely not fair. Every part of the item, whatever it is comes from all over the world. It costs a lot of money to ship it places and the people who are selling the item aren’t getting paid a lot of money. So when you actually get the item, though it may seem simple, a lot of hard work was put into getting the item to you.
Every part of this system revolves around this one point. Consumption. Americans are specifically known for our ways of consuming things. Guess how many of the consumer goods are kept after 6 months in the average American household? ONE PERCENT!! That means 99% of all of the things that we buy are trashed within 6 months of use. Why do you think this is? Well, the big production companies have 2 different strategies, called Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence. Planned Obsolescence means making an item so that it will break easily, but still keeps you wanting to buy that product again and again. Perceived Obsolescence means making something that will go out of style quickly. These two business strategies keep people coming back for more and more. The average person is exposed to 3000 advertisements a day! They sure are trying hard to get us to but stuff huh?
Disposal is the last and most harmful to the environment of all of the sections. That 99% of stuff goes to the garbage dump right? Well at the garbage dump, what they do with the garbage can be very harmful to the environment. If the garbage is burn, and then thrown into a landfill, it produces a chemical. The chemical is called Dioxin and is highly toxic. This toxin is extremely hard o the environment. You might think that recycling is good, but it isn’t good enough. We have to stop this system in its tracks to make a difference. It is our future at stake.
The movie kind of shocked me when I saw it. It is amazing how much damage we have done to the environment. It got me worried about my future, and made me really want to make a difference. But I thought that the movie was a little bit bias. The facts I am sure were straightforward and true, but the way that the lady talked was kind of unfair. She talked about all of the chemicals being a bad thing, but do they all not help us? I mean there must be a reason for it all. Other than that the movie was pretty good.
As a school, I think that we can try to cut down on everything we use and recycle as much as possible. But I think that the best thing that we can do is teach others about what is going on. Since we are a school community, and we go to school to make ourselves better humans and learn, what better way to show others all that we know? If we teach everyone about this and encourage those people to change their ways of living (along with doing the same individually) we can get the point across. We are the future, and we need to take responsibility. Eventually someone is bound to listen.
By Orangesnailsarecool!
‘The Story of Stuff’ Reflection
In the materials economy, everything is related to everything else. One thing leads to the next. First, materials are removed from natural habitats. That is called extraction. Those materials are then sent to factories where they are made into products. This part of the system is called production. After that, the products are sent out to retailers in distribution. Next, those products are bought by consumers in consumption. Lastly, the products are thrown away in disposal.
This movie really made me think. Mostly about consumption (because that is where I come into the materials economy) and how it affects the other parts of the system. We live in a country where overconsumption is not unusual. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much of a problem this is. The materials economy is a linier system (meaning that once it reaches the end it doesn’t go back to the beginning), so (unless it’s recyclable), when we throw stuff out, we can’t reuse it. It’s thrown into a landfill or burned and released as chemicals and air-pollutants. This is so extremely wasteful it’s not even funny. It’s also a major contributor to global warming. And that’s just how consumption affects disposal. In order for us to have our products, materials are needed. And where do those materials come from? Nature. Our dying planet. Those materials have to be extracted from where they belong to be made into our products. And you want to know the saddest part? We don’t need most of the stuff we own. We destroy some of Earth’s greatest beauties for what? A purse? A new video game? I could go on all day. Next is production and distribution. Our “needs” are made in factories. Factories are a major cause of global warming. Not to mention how harmful all the chemicals used in them are to workers. Then, the products are shipped off to stores all around the world, where they are sold for a minor price that really does not cover the costs of what it took to make it. As they said in the movie, we are not paying for what we buy. The people whose land was destroyed paid for it. The workers who were put at risk paid for it. The underpaid sales employee paid for it. This just bothered me sooooo much. I mean, I know I’m totally guilty, but honestly, I’ve never looked at it that way. When I saw this movie, the major thing that stuck out to me was not how our Earth is affected, but how its citizens are. I saw how every day, WE are exploited. I also thought about all the people who really paid for the item. Like all people in countries like China or Mexico, who work in factories all day, exposed to many toxic chemicals, making a meager salary. That’s just not humane. Many of us, because our country does have fair labor laws, haven’t really thought about what goes into something as simple as a shirt. It’s sad to know that in such an advanced society, we have so many flaws. I know that everything has flaws, but couldn’t we figure out a way to fix some of them? Yes, we probably could, but whether or not “we” want to is a whole different story. This system is good at only one thing, and that’s making money for the major corporations. And, sadly, the only thing the corporations care about is money. How pathetic is it that the human race cares more about money than about how tearing down our rainforests will affect the people who live there and the world, how 30% of the children in the Congo have dropped out of school to mine coal? I mean, jeez! That to me is disturbing. No, scratch that. The whole movie disturbed me.
There is so much we could do to address this situation. However, when it comes to the materials economy, using less is probably the most effective way to decrease our impact. We could make some kind of school rule stating that all flyers handed out to students had to be double sided. We could also make sure that items are completely invaluable before throwing stuff away, like computers. Mr. Cairl was talking about how we’re getting new textbooks next year, and I was wondering what would happen with the old ones. I certainly hope they’re not headed for the dump. That’s why I figured we could recycle them. We could also donate the not-too-badly-beaten ones to poorer schools than ours. This would a) keep them from being incinerated and releasing gas in the air or taking up space in a landfill; b) give supplies to people who need them; and c) keep the corporations from having to make more of them. That means less trees cut down, less water used up and less factory people working unfair hours. If we just sat down and brainstormed for a bit, I bet we could find a bazillion ways to decrease our impact on the materials economy and our Earth. And as we know from ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, we only have one Earth.
Story of Stuff
All the ipods, cell phones, computers, ECT Move through a cycle called the Materials Economy. Where the materials go through 5 stages, the first is extraction. Extraction is when you take recourses from the envierment to make stuff. The only problem is 80% of the U.S.A.’s original forests are gone. Then we go to some other land and take there recourses.1/3 of the planets recourses are gone.
Next is production which is mixing energy with toxics. So when toxic chemicals the overall product is full of toxics. 100,000 chemicals were not tested. So we get rid of the recourses we get rid of people’s homes. Then the people move to cities. 200,000 people a day.
After the toxic filled products are sold as quick as possible this is called distribution. We also don’t pay for the stuff we buy after the multiple shipments the average lamp is not $10.00. 30% of the kids in the Congo drop out of school and work in mines.
Next is consume, the U.S. in a nation of consumption.99% of the stuff we get is trashed in the first 6 months. So now the companies make things breakable. The consumers still have confidence in the produced to keep buying it. Not only napkins but grills too. We also see more then 3000 ads a day!!! That is more then people 50 yrs. Ago saw in a life time. Last is the nation happiness is dropping.
Last is disposal. Each American brings out 4.5 Lbs. a day!
Twice of what we brought out 30 yrs. ago. The trash is put in a land fill or incinerated then pout in a land fill, both pollute the envierment. Incinerating it releases dioxins. Dioxins are the most toxic man made toxic known to science. Even recycling can’t help. Juice boxes are made of paper, plastic, and metal put together so they can’t be recycled.
This movie made me think about the problem the proses has and what we could do to stop it. What we at PVC could do is make sure kids and teachers recycle and buy more recyclable things.
Last week my class and I watched a video called The Story of Stuff. What it was about was were our goods come from and were they go when we throw them away and how every thing in the cycle is connected. In the cycle there was Extraction, Production Distribution, Consumption, and Deposal. Extraction is getting the supplies to make the product, Production is making the product, Distribution is selling the product, Consumption is people buying the product, and Disposal is getting rid of or throwing out the product. All of these things are basted on each other because they all rely on each other.
This movie was a very sad movie to me it made me see what I was doing to the world by throwing away my things when they are still good. I had already hated when people littered and when people got rid of things that were still good. But after this movie I was thinking I thought I get mad when people do it but I do it myself. Now after this I really want to do something about this problem because we all only have one world so that means we all only have on chance as well.
I think as a school that we should really help address this problem I think we could do so by not using so much paper and when we do we need to put it in the recycling not the garbage. I think that we need to reuse things like old things from the year before don’t throw it out we should save it for next year. I think we should put a few recycling things out side of the cafeteria for bottles cause sometimes I know I drink water and bring it around school with me.
By NOTTOM07
everything is related everything else because everything is the same.its like a crucile of life.the movie made me feel like there are tocics in everything we have and sleep on or eat and that scaried me.maybe we can stop using toxics in are stuff. not montell
In the video, “Story Of Stuff” that we watched on Thursday and Friday, the woman talked about the Materials Economy and how it is effecting our world. The Materials Economy is based on five parts.
First there is Extraction. Extraction is how we use up our natural resources to make our consumer goods. Extraction has left us with less than 4% of our original forests and is killing animals. We are currently cutting down 200,000 trees a minute! 1/3 of our natural resources are gone!!! If we continue with this, we will have an even bigger problem. Next is Production, or the making of the “stuff.”
During Production, we are taking energy adding our natural resources, AND toxins! Leaving us with toxic filled products. The pillows that we rest our heads on every night have been covered with a neural toxin, which means toxic to the brain! After the production process comes the Distribution.
The Distribution is the selling of the products made in Production. The products are sold in stores where anyone can buy the products. They may think they are purchasing what they are buying but they really are not. Company’s externalize the costs to sell you a product for a cheap amount of money but it is really worth much more. People all over the world have put together that product for little or sometimes no pay at all.
Once the products have been distributed into stores, the Consumption part takes place. Consumers buy the products that they think will last a long time but really, they are designed to break easily. This gets the buyers buying more than they need. 99% of the stuff that the average American buys, is thrown away within the first 6 months of your purchase. We keep throwing away and throwing away stuff that we just bought just because something a little better comes along. We may try to recycle but it doesn’t always work that way...
The last stage is Disposal. Disposal is where all the stuff that we keep throwing away goes. Since there are SO many materials put into most products, no matter how hard we try, we can never fully recycle what we throw away. Not to mention the toxins that are being distributed into the air once they get disposed! This is what is polluting our environment.
To be honest, this movie made me very, very scared!!! I don’t want our planet to die out! Just the fact that we have neural toxins on our pillows scares me every night now. It also made me feel guilty about how much useless stuff i buy each day and barely use it a few months later. I never really thought about it but, I shop a lot. And half the stuff, I don’t even need or use. And come to think of it, a lot of it breaks, very easily. I am MUCH more aware of what I buy now. I don’t want our world to be anymore polluted!
Since the woman in the movie mentioned how we can not fully recycle. I think we should at least TRY to recycle as much as possible, that way the many things we throw away are reusable and do not release toxic chemicals into the world. We can turn off lights in classrooms and not use so much paper without recycling. Each step towards a healthier world counts.
Reflection on the one and only "Story of Stuff"
In this system of how everything works is pretty complicated. First you got the earth, the whole factory for everything: Earth grows trees, trees get cut down into tiny pieces, get shot down a tube into a factory that’s scorching making paper for Major companies like staples, Wal-mart etc. Then getting bought by our school, getting used by a printer or to take notes on, once those are filled until we have no further use of them it gets recycled or thrown away. In the factory were the chemicals that will damaged perfectly well people with toxics making the reproductive system little strange.
This movie really made start to wonder how this is all effecting ourselves. I mean once everything gets blown up cut down where are we in this? Our homes a being helpless thus, making use work ten times as hard, in factory! Which are mostly located in cities, which is like the central point of pollution. Once it’s sold to consumers like us we usually stock it up in our house, once we feel like we totally don't need it anymore we throw it out or if its recyclable we do that. Recycling is only helping us by a little amount. Because when the garbage is brought to a "dump" or like a huge hole it's either just thrown in or incinerated into whittle tiny pieces making more room in the huge hole. But, with every great thing also comes a problem. POLLUTION!. When you incinerate things toxins get released into the air, but since this a stronger pollution thing, it creates Toxins on steroids which are called "Dioxins" which are SUPER, making our atmosphere thicker thus making it extremely hot. It basically like what i said Everything Great comes with a Problem.
Our school can do better on this situation by having more recycling being done, or by even going green! Telling people not to throw stuff behind the bleachers or leaving garbage outside. Or even using less color on our projects from the computer, and using less paper or even thinner. This is always a start.
regrowth
MR. ardito i cant remember my pass word!!!!!!
regrowth
I learned a lot from the video, The Story Of Stuff. I thought it was very smart and logical, and that more people need to know about this situation, because half the people that are living in this process don't even know what they are doing it. The most powerful people in this country are the people of the government and the corporation. This video made me wonder if they were aware of the information on the video. The government's job is to protect the rights of the people. If that is true, than how come this cycle is still present. It starts with the environment. We only have one world, which means we only have one chance. 1/3 of the natural resources have already been used and 80% of the earth's original forests are gone. Every minute we wait to prevent this, seven football fields are cleared. If we continue treating the earth this way, what will it have left? Next, is the process of using toxic chemicals for our products. The goal is in this country, is to own the most stuff, because if you don't you are not considered valuable. So many toxic chemicals are being used. On out pillows, and on the couches we sit on. Even our own babies get toxics just when breast feeding. In this process we are also polluting by spreading gases in the air. 200,000 people move to the suburbs a day, sometimes just to go work with the toxic chemicals. The amount that the government admits to of releasing toxic chemicals, is four billion pounds. Next step in the process is all about externalizing costs. Externalized costs are real costs that really aren't captured in price. This is to get more and more people to buy and shop. And at the end of the month, 99% of the stuff that really we didn't buy is thrown out in the trash. I am also saying that most of the things we purchase are more than the true price. The 30% of young people who dropped out of school to work in the cole mines in Kongo, really are the ones who payed for it. Or the ones who created the product in China which eventually was shipped to the shops, payed for it. And its all thrown away at the end of the day. Then there are methods to encourage this. One is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where stuff is designed to not be recycled and that have to be replaced. In other words, the government or the corporation are actually encouraging this than rather preventing it! The other method is Perceived Obsolescence, which is where they change the way something looks to keep in "style". A big example is fashion. It changes every year just to get people to keep on shopping. If you aren't in style, basically, your are not valuable. The advertisements shown by the media are also encouraging this. It is telling us Americans, that all of our things we bought isn't valuable anymore, which makes us go out and shop. It is proven that the more this happens, the less happy we get. Then all the stuff we worked hard on to afford is usually thrown out. That brings us to the next step, which is about where all of our things go when thrown away. The trash is usually placed underground, or burnt, which produces even mightier chemicals. Dioxin is the main toxic chemicals. The more we do this, the more it is produced into the the "fresh" air we are breathing and relying on in our everyday lives. I think that this is a huge problem, that should get much more attention. We think that we are being looked out for by the big government and corporation, but are they really tackling this problem that keeps growing the more and more we wait? Our main problems, is that we need everyone to solve this. We can't just rely on the people who are doing the most they can or even the most powerful people. I believe that everyone needs to be aware of this and give it the most attention.
The Story of Stuff Reflection
By Lucy Stockton
The Story of stuff was a fascinating and very informational video about the process “stuff” takes. From extraction to production to distribution to consumption and finally to disposal, Annie Leonard takes us through the material economy. She shows us that this is a system in crisis. All along this system we are meeting limits and staying just inside those borders but still trying to push out. With everything we do in one part of the process it affects another thing like dominoes, not enough resources, not enough production, not enough production then there’s not enough distribution, if there’s not enough distribution there won’t be enough consumption, that will get the corporation mad and get the government in trouble ultimately meaning that the people are getting in the most trouble because they’re not buying enough stuff. Everywhere we go, we’re meeting limits. Extraction is earth exploitation where we take up all the resources for our own uses. Production is when we take those resources and use them to make a lot of the time toxic products. Distribution is where we sell those possibly toxic products to people as fast as we can. In between Distribution and consumption is the golden arrow, the golden arrow is what the government is focusing on now and a lot of other people are too. The Golden arrow is also the cause of many of the problems in this system including planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Victor le Bough came up with the idea for the whole system in which he said that we are a nation of consumers. Consumption is when we buy things and stuff it in our house, only 1% of stuff we buy is still in use 6, months later. Finally we come to Disposal, which is when we get rid of all the stuff we bought, there are 2 ways to get rid of the stuff, landfills and incineration. They’re both bad for the environment. But Annie Leonard talked about how we can all do things to help stop this linear system.
The movie taught me a lot of things. I learned about planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence, those are horrible. I didn’t know that things were actually designed for the dump and I know that perceived obsolescence is always happening around us but I’ve never looked at it that way. It made me feel like I knew more now. It gave me a wake up call just as an inconvenient truth did. I think this movie has lot’s to teach and I feel like I‘ve learned a lot.
PVC as a school could do a lot to help like put recycling bins for everything in the cafeteria not just bottles. We could raise awareness and do little things. We could use recycled toilet paper, or stop giving out so may handouts, have lights that turn off automatically and make sure that computers that turn off when people aren’t using them. PVC could do a lot to help it’s all just waiting at our doorstep. As Isabel once said, “we could change our school colors from orange and black to green.”
Story of Stuff Reflection
Everything in the materials economy is related. What happens is like a cycle, it starts at extraction and goes all the way to disposal and back to extraction again. First at extraction, we take resources from our planet such as tin, wood, oil, etc. The resources then go to production, which makes them into things we can use such as computers, pencils, and pillows. People as consumers then go out and buy things that we think we need. The companies constantly change what we purchased looks like so that we will buy the newer version of it even if it is not better. We then consume or use the product, which we have just bought until we are told that it is bad because it is old and should not be used. This goes to the disposal. At the disposal, we throw out our old things that we do not want anymore. These old things are either incinerated and then put into a landfill or just directly put into a landfill. After this, the cycle starts over again and more resources are extracted to be turned into products for us to buy, so that we can throw them out once we are done, to buy more and more and more.
The movie made me feel somewhat bad that so many bad things are happening from the materials economy system. It is creating a shortage of resources, adding to global warming, destroying communities, and even poisoning many substances. I think that we should change this system since it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet. The two things do not go well with each other. It is like old version of something that is not compatible with the new one. We need to create a new system; the system we are using is not working anymore. It might take a while, but we have to at least try to do it.
I think as a school we should try not to throw out so much garbage and not buy very cheap things, which are meant to be thrown away. When we buy products, we should try to use them for as long as possible and not always go for the new things. People could try to avoid buying something new that does the same thing as the thing that they have except for the fact that it looks different. We should also buy green materials as well as biodegradable materials. That way we are done with them they will decompose. Last of all we should always recycle even though it is not the solution it will still help.
-Aidan :
Green101 you revealed your name again. Also in the same way, you wrote by your real name.
-Aidan :
The Story of Stuff, a simple video about us, the world, and how were destroying it (narrated *joyfully* by Anne Leonard).
This movie was particularly disappointing because it shows how we completely messed up. We sucked 1/3 of the worlds resources completely dry, and the worst part is , it really is mostly America that did it. We have made factory's that mix dangerous chemicals with wasted energy that make random, stupid, useless stuff. The factory's cause pollution and the products made at the factory's filled with dangerous chemicals pollute our body's. When were done with the stuff we bought we throw it out and it gets burried. This system already sucks and I didn't get into any of the rest of it. Firstly we all should know by now about the basic cycle of things. Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and Disposal. But do we all know what those words consist of? No. Extraction basically means we harvest resources from around the world. Trees for wood, mountains for metal, rivers for water and animals for food. In the amazon rain forest we lose 20,000 trees a minute, rounded thats 333 trees a second, just to make stuff we probably don't need wood for. It's hard to work with, it's dangerous, it rots and it breaks easily. what about easier more common and less harmful resources? What happened to houses made of stone, more stable and dependable for sure.
And what about Production? As I said, we mix chemicals and energy together to make *things*. As we continue processing those *things* we pollute the earth and hurt the planet U.S. factory's admit to creating 4 billion pounds of toxic waste. And we don't want to trash our own lands so we spread the company's and factory's all over the world, trash some other place. And the chemicals in the items are awful. We use Brominated Flame Retardants (B.F.R.'s) which make things less flamable but are extremely toxic and it just so happens to effect the brain. And where can we find this chemical? In pillows!!!! We rest our heads on something that is damaging the inside of the head itself. That's like joining the *Save the baby seals committee* and then walking over the backs of baby seals to get to the meeting... ok, not really, but you get my point.
Distribution is the part where we take all the junk that we make and send it off around the world to sell it off to make money from it and hurt the people from other lands with our chemicals.
Consumption is one of the worst parts. We absorb products from all over the world. And almost 99% of the stuff we work so hard to make, that we pollute our planet and our body's with, that we destroy the world over... is trashed within half a year. then to mention half a year.Then when we are done with all of it when were bored with it, or sick of it, or it just wastes space to us, we toss it and they bury it. But it is so much easier to bury stuff when its compacted or in a small pile of ashes. So we take stuff and squish it down and waste energy, or we burn it all and pollute the atmosphere. or just bury it in the ground as it is. Although I still don't think Mother Earth still wants a New Mac or en empty StarBucks coffee cup. even with all the cut backs on burning and squishing the stuff to make it fit in the landfills it still isn't good for the earth.
This movie just showed me the mess up close and it's worse than I thought. It makes me sick just to think about it. Angry at the world, Upset with all the humans on the world about what we did and sad, so sad that we all brought this upon ourselves.
But it's good in a way, the 20th century is filled with slackers, this gives us something to do. I'm not saying when we get lazy we should cause a global disaster... but for now lets work with what we have. Wind and Solar power Hot and Geothermal water heaters are all discovered and waiting to be put to good use, so let's take the next step and use them. Lets donate money to the American association of science and help them come up with something to get us out of the dangerous pit that the world has fallen into.
“STUFF” is interesting. Some times you think, how is it made, how does it work? Well, it’s pretty complicated. It all starts with the earth. Without the resources of our earth, we would die pretty quickly. It all goes through a system starting with extraction, then production, then distribution, then consumption, and then disposal. This whole process is called the Materials Economy. This process is a linear system that works with a finite system which is not really a good thing. Extraction is basically trashing the planet. When we eventually use up all the resources, I don’t know what we’ll live on! We cut down the trees, use up the water, blow up the mountains, and then kill all the animals. Most of the earth is being trashed and used up. Next is Production. When all the resources are used they are put into factories. The factories use energy to mix chemicals into the resources and are made into goods. The process of production pollutes the air; (a help to global warming). 100,000 synthetic chemicals are used to make products. B.F.R.’s are a good example, (Brominated Flame Retardants). These are toxic to the brain and are used in many daily appliances. Distribution is the process of selling the highly chemical daily products. They keep prices down and sell lots. This is called Externalized Costs. Consumption is the process of shopping and consuming these goods. Actually, 99% of the things we buy is trashed and thrown out in the period of 6 months. Last is Disposal, the process of hauling our garbage out to the curb and throwing it out. Every day we make 4.5 lbs. a day! When the garbage dudes come around to take the garbage, it’s usually put in a land fill. Also it can be incinerated, and then put in a land fill. Incineration pollutes the air even worse than the production of the garbage when it was a new product. Dioxin is the most toxic man made chemical known to science. Recycling is a better way to dispose of things. This is really the chain of stuff. This process is a linear system that works with a finite system which is not really a good thing. The last thing the stuff chain needs is people. The people who mattered a little more to our country are the government. The government’s job is to protect the people, but the corporation is 1% bigger and the government looks up to the corps.
This movie was interesting. I really don’t care much about it, but other people do. It was shocking to me how the world just gets worse by the year. The world really needs to be shaped up a lot and we can help. It really doesn’t affect me though.
As a school, we could make pins or T-shirts or anything to support against pollution and littering this one single world. We could raise money to go on trips to parks and pick up garbage so we could make it a nicer place to be. This could clean up our earth a little bit and this could be a yearly process we could do every month. We could make schedules as a class to parks and make arrangements for cool different trashed places to pick up. I think it would be a good idea to do for our school for anyone who wants to support against littering and pollution.
Story of Stuff
In this story of stuff video I learned a ton of facts about the process the world lives on. It is called a materials economy. The process starts with Extraction, then Production, Distribution, Consumption and then followed by Disposal. This process is like a circle that keeps on going from the beginning to the end, kind of like the earth does. Using this system that we use today will use up all of our resources soon enough.
We first start off with extraction. Extraction is very bad, we are chopping down tons of trees ( 2,000 trees a minute, thats 10 football fields a minute), blow up mountains, and use fresh water. Then comes production where we are using energy and toxins to make our product good. Therefor the people working in the factories where production happens are getting very sick, they are near very dangerous toxins every day. Then comes distribution which is the selling of products. A lot of companies want to keep their product to keep moving on, so they lower the price of the product. Therefore they don't have enough money to even pay the workers working in the factories, so they are forced to externalize the costs. After distribution comes Consumption. Consumption is a huge part of our economy. This is when a product gets so old that if you are still using it you may even be made fun of by others. This makes you go out and keep on buying and buying more and more stuff. A astonishing fact about consumption is that an average human makes 4.5 lbs of garbage a day. The last step is Disposal when we just throw away all of the trash. But the big question is where does of all this stuff go? Well, sometimes it goes to landfill, where they just throw it all over the place. And they also sometimes burn this stuff in the incinerator. After that toxins get into it and it all just goes back up in the air.
This movie makes me feel weird and ashamed of what this process is doing to our lives now, and even worse to our future. Just knowing that 4 billion lbs. of pollution is let out of factories a year just makes me feel very weird. This movie was very useful because I believe that this sent some sort of message to viewers and hopefully they act positive towards this.
I believe that our main solution to this process is to recycle everything that can be recycled. A ton of cans are thrown in the garbage a day and with just throwing them in the recycling bin, we don't have to do most of this process. That is a start.
By Whitestripe
I thought that the story of stuff was very interesting and helpful it gave me a bunch of information on the materials economy and how every thing works. I can’t believe that 1 third of the plants natural resources are gone. Also 2,000 trees a minute is unbelievable I wonder what were using that many for because we can’t possibly be building houses out of 2,000 trees a minute. I thought that the part about the toxins being mixed in with the products in the production stage was scary enough but then to learn that they were burned in the disposal stage releasing super toxins. Also 4,ooo, ooo, ooo pounds of pollution a year, I would think that the Ozone layer would be completely destroyed years ago. Another interesting thing I thought was the way the look of things change each year so that people will want to throw perfectly good things away. I think that we should try to make the materials economy (like she said) more of a finite cycle than a linear one.
Wow, this is a lot of people who like to make excessively long "comments". MR ARDITO, COUNT THIS ONE AS MY HOMEWORK.
This video was a great way to spread the word on the "unfortunate truth" of our manufacturing methods.(pun intended)
The host, Annie Leonard, explains the system of our production process. She says there are 5 steps in the story of stuff. Number 1 is "Extraction". This is where we get resources for our products. We mine, cut, log, drain, and lots of other destructive sounding words! Number 2 is "Production". In this stage, the stuff from the Extraction is now put to use. The materials are worked, and soldered, and fit together to create a product. Number 3 is "Distribution". The product is now sold to people at stores. Everything is advertised and hyped up for good sales. Number 4 is "Consumption". The product is used by the consumer. And some of these are designed for quick use, then disposal. This brings me to the last part; "Disposal" after the product is used, it is thrown away. But not only, that but it is taken by the garbage trucks to be put into landfills.
The stages seem innocent at first, but as each stage has its downfalls, the bigger picture has a major impact on everyone. For an example, in the Extraction stage, the materials harvested form the earth are there, but as we keep taking them, we keep eating up the planet as if we live on a finite planet. And we run a linear system on a finite planet. This means, we have a never ending line of stuff being made. Also, as the USA, we consume the most resources as a country. And, we've used 30% of the earth's resources. 40% of the US water ways are unusable. 80% of the worlds forests are gone. If everyone consumed at America's rate, we would need...5 planets. In my opinion, this is getting out of hand.
Next, in the production stage, we have the materials put together and made into a product. But to make most of these products, we need to use deadly toxins. We've already got 100,000 synthetics/toxins used in making our products. Only some of these toxins/synthetics have been tested for harm to humans. And as we start to use more of these deadly substances, we start to release them into the air. The chemicals then start to affect living things. So what do we do? We just take everything to the other countries for manufacturing. But in the end, the chemicals just get shot back by wind currents.
In the Distribution stage, we under cut prices to encourage buying. Now, how could a disposable digital camcorder being sold at CVS, Cost $15 when it had to be designed by the company, the circuitry made in china, the stickers made in the USA (surprise, surprise), the case also made in China, the lens made in Germany(who knows?), the shipment costs to get all materials to one factory in China, get assembled, shipped off to the USA ware houses, taken to that CVS shop, and still pay for the CVS guy who was working at the cash register, let alone the lessons that they get on how to get the images out from the camera? And what about all of the resources taken from territories?
The Consuming stage keeps the whole thing going. This is where everything is kept alive. Where all things are wasted in a matter of weeks. Where if we did have infinite house space, we would make the planet into a ball of Swiss cheese. Where if we had extremely greedy Americans,(if thats possible...considering how greedy we are now) a game system would be a paper-towel. The thing that doesn't work though, is that we consume way too much, and never stop. So how bad could it be? We keep the TV and the DVD player, and the bed, and the... Sure we keep it, but how much in proportion do we actually keep? Well only about 1% of the things we buy are kept for more than 6 months. Now look around, what have you kept for more than 6 months in the room. A lot ? Imagine how much you HAVEN'T kept in the past 6 months? Not a good sign is it?
Last, in the Disposal stage, we throw our stuff out and are done with it. Remembering how much we keep in 6 months shows we throw out...a lot. But only one trash can right? Could be worse! Yes it could... and it is! For every garbage can we haul out every week, 70 are hauled out back at the manufacturing plant. 71 garbage cans every week?
Not good. Another thing. The garbage from all of this is put somewhere. In the ground. Or it's burned up, then put into the ground. And when things are burned like this... the toxins from manufacturing are released into the air even more. And what's worse, is that when these toxins are burned, the toxins are strengthened, given even more deadliness.
We need to do something, but I'm not sure yet. I mean, how can we live with this going on behind our backs? All in all, the world is in deep trouble, in terms of everything.
Well PVC could help. First, doing all the things global warming needs to happen. Second, recycling more than just paper and tin cans.
MR ARDITO, COUNT THIS COMMENT!
STORY OF STUFF
The Story of Stuff. Wow that’s a very broad topic. This story of stuff is about all of these many topics. The story of stuff is a huge problem. Stuff is a cycle and that cycle is a cycle in crisis.
The cycle consists of five parts. Each of the se five parts connects. They are all important to each other. They need to connect for our way of life to work correctly. The systems parts are: taking from our resources to making things out of the resources to the stores to your house to the garbage and then the cycle keeps going on an on and on.
This movie scared me. It makes me think a lot on how things are wasted so easily. I mean we can’t survive in a cycle like this. Our future lives going to be living in a world made out of waste and chemicals. It’s not healthy and it’s just not right. I think the biggest thing that hit me was that we don’t use 99% of things that we buy in 6 months. It makes me think of my brother. He has so many toys and he doesn’t play with them he just sits around all day and watches TV
What I think we could do as a school to change this situation from being a bad situation to a situation we could work on and get better is use less things or use things for longer. Things like textbooks or notebooks and things like that if we just use less things could be better.
This cycle called stuff is a cycle in crisis, but if we just try hard enough then
maybe you and I could live in a world with less stuff or at least we could try.
OUTLINE FOR STORY OF STUFF
¶ Introduction
• What this reflection is about
¶ The System
• How everything is related
• About the system
¶ How did it make me feel?
• How it made me feel
• What was the biggest thing
¶ What do I think we could do as a school to change the situation
• Use less things/ use things for longer
The Story of Stuff I learned
about the process of waste management.Materialistic Economy we live in.This system is a big silver liner of waste disposal landfill.
It's main concern is the products and getting consumers to shop.Not worried about the ozone layer or the trees,and animals that live here.Pretty soon we going run out of place to put all this junk.
An ongoing recycle where toxins get put in the air by the chemical plants making supertoxins are filling the ozone mixed with natural resources.
Corporations are pushing
us as consumers to continue the
the ongoing cycle of shopping and who pays it?We all do..and the workers don't even get the amount the product was made.
This movie made me realize the government's main concern is to get us to become consumers so we can shop,use,dispose and they make millions while the workers can barely survive.We also spend most of our time making flame retardant chemicals that are use on everything we use today..including the pillows.
Conclusion is that the government needs stop pollution where it starts.Don't get me I also like to shop but,I never knew what this economy was made up of until I seen the movie by Annie Leoonard.
I think we should stop wastling school supplies or they end up in an landfill.and promote an clothing drive and toy drive..give to someone who needs it more take care of some the things we throw out.
How about we make energy saving products as well as recyclin g.Trees was here before we all as an school can do an fundraiser to saving the planet.
The Materials Economy system. In the Materials Economy there are 5 stages. Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and Disposal. In Extraction they take things from the environment(which is one thing that is ruining the world), in production they take those things and make stuff out of them (devices,toys,etc.). In Distribution , well its in the name they distribute the things, which basically means (in this case) they sell the things. In Consumption, the people who buy the stuff consume it. In Disposal they get rid of the things.
I thought the movie was really good. It showed me a lot, and that made me learn a lot. I like how it had visual effects. I think if the movie didn't have the effects it would of been harder to understand. If we watch anymore movies in class i would like them to be like that.
As a school we could try not to buy things we don't really need because there is no point in buying them if were not going to use them. Also to not throw out stuff as much or as easy because that stuff is going to be incinerated and put in a landfill.
That is my reflection of The Story of Stuff.
The story of stuff
Reflection
By Doo Da Dee
Economy, that is what the government is all about. That is the view you get from this movie which is true. The economy runs on extraction, production, distribution, consuming, and disposing. Witch is devouring our world and spitting it back at us making it a death planet. No one wants to live on a death planet.
Every thing works in a stream motion but in this stream the end of the stream is thrown away and never comes back. Extractions are when people suck the natural resources out of places witch then destroys every thing and the land is not usable. We destroy 2,000 trees a minute in the Amazon. That is bad but it gets worse. Now we have production, that is where we take those resources and mix it with some synthetic chemicals. Like pillows we take a pillow and dip it into a vat of b.f.r. (brominated flame retardant) a synthetic chemical. Distribution is where you end up buying these goods and buying these goods is helping the system do what it does. Kill! After you buy all of the junk you do you bring it home. Consumption is the worst part because we throw away 99 percent of what we buy away. All that money spent just to throw what we buy away and throw our planet away. Here we come to the last stop on our stream disposal. There are two places we put trash. 1) land fill 2) incinerator. Nether of them are good but the incinerator is burning up trash witch releases those synthetic chemicals and is making super toxins. For example dioxin is the most harmful man made chemical.
The movie makes me feel responsible for what is happening and makes me want to do something. Something that will a big mark and impression. Others in our school probably care too. We could start by sending letters to congress men singed by 10-20 people to show more than one person in the school cares. The letters would talk about getting companies to make things more natural, no synthetic chemicals. We could get other schools to do the same because the more people have the stronger we are and then we have a better chance of something happening. We as a school could boycott luxuries we don’t need and not buying things we don’t need. We could even make our own public service announcements. With the help of our media and communications facilities groups of students could get together and hold meetings about what else we can do. For example we could get celebrities to inform their fans.
The Story of Stuff Reflection
I thought the story was good and interesting. I think this because it explains how the material economy works and how it is twisted and is changed so it doesn’t sound so bad. If you know the whole story then you would think otherwise. We only have 4% of our natural forests left and 2,000 trees a minute are cut down. I think that it is amazing that a place as great as the U.S. would allow that to happen. With all this technology you would think that we would be able to find a less harmful and toxic way. Dioxin, a man made toxin that is the most harmful known to science. I thought that it was amazing that in six months only 1% of thing bought in that six months was thrown away. I can sort to relate to this because I want the itouch and I already have an ipod. The only difference is that I wouldn’t throw my old one away I would give it to my sister. How can people be so obsessed with keeping up appearances when some will drive them self into bankruptcy just so they can be in with the trends. If people just stopped and thought about what they were buying and why they need I think that 85% wouldn’t buy it. The thing that surprised me the most is that people design things to break. Why doesn’t the government change that. O I know why because the get some of the taxes so it only helps them. I think that it was a good movie and I will definitely think before I buy and I will not try to buy into stupid trends and will recycle a lot more
The Story of Stuff By: bezgirl
The Story of Stuff was a movie that we watched in science that tells us were our stuff came from and were it goes when we throw it out. What that’s called is materials economy. The process of that system is very long and complicated, first extraction, second production, third distribution, fourth consumption, last disposal. All these steps happen to all of our stuff. The first step (extraction) “is a fancy word for trashing the planet” we cut down all the trees for wood, we use up all the water, we eat all the animals and we blow up all the mountains. This means we are running out of resources we are using to much stuff. When I heard that one third of the world’s natural resource space is gone I realized we all need to take action in helping the planet. The second step is production, so we mix energy with natural recourses, and toxic chemical to make toxic contaminated things. When I heard that even some pillows have lots and lots of toxic it made me think that what if I’m laying my head on a toxic pillow every night I go to bed. Also when the movie said that the most toxic thing was breast milk, yea breast milk it really scared me because my cousin just had a baby so this made me really worry. The third step was distribution that means selling all the toxic stuff as quickly as possible. The goal is to keep the prices down, keep the people buying, and keep the inventory moving. In the movie they say that what people buy is not nearly the amount of money that was used to make it. The fourth step is consumption, when they said that only one percent of the stuff we buy now will be in use six months from now, that means 99% of the stuff we buy we still have in six months. When I realized how much that was true it made me want to stop throwing away all of my stuff. The last step is called disposal. That means throwing stuff out, in the movie it says that each person in the United States creates 4.5 pounds a day of garbage. That’s a lot when you add it all up. All of the garbage either gets dumped in a land fill (a big hole in the ground), or gets burned in an incinerator then dumped in a land fill. After I heard that some of the garbage gets burned it made me wonder if all the chemicals (in the stuff that they are burning) gets released in to the air. Then the movie said that “all the chemicals get released into the air” that made me wonder how many chemicals get released from one piece of garbage. The movie didn’t answer that. I think that P.V.C can help stop all of this by recycling more not only paper but bottles and cans.
It sounds like you learned a lot from the video, 'The Story of Stuff'. I'm wondering what you think we should be doing in our own school district to improve? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Dr. Castro
My father, who's big on this sort of thing, happened to show this to me a few monthes ago. I really enjoyed it then. For what reason did the 7th grade watch this video?
Plargo,
I was beginning the study of ecology with my 7th grade students and thought this was a good way to introduce everything being related to everything else and human impact on the environment.
What did you think of it?
Mr. A.
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