Watch The Story of Stuff (21 minutes): http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/ and provide your reaction.

This video perfectly sums up the issues we face today with production and consumption. The society we live in today so easily throws away tons of junk and ends up buying more which is probably unnecessary. I was shocked to find out that there is actual terminology for the things we buy and throw out: intentional and perceived obsolescence. Intentional obsolescence refers to the things we buy that was produced to only last a certain amount of time before it breaks or needs to be replaced while still maintain the trust of the consumer. I feel as though if more consumers were informed on this market trick, maybe we would be more conscious of the cheap crap we buy. Perceived obsolescence refers to the changing styles of items like clothing, shoes, and furniture that convince people they need to update their things. This is an unfortunate consumerist occurrence which greatly contributes to the whole market system, hence why it is difficult to curb.

The speaker in the video mentions a ‘closed loop production’ cycle, a concept nearly opposite of the production cycle described in the video. Resources we take from the planet need to be regenerated before we keep extracting them. And the labor we drain from the poorest people on the planet needs to be given the value it deserves, otherwise society will be stuck in this loop of consume and toss.

Evaluate your feelings about the conflict between the consumer economy and environmental sustainability.  How do you feel about the idea that to be a good environmental steward means going “without”?

The consumer economy an environmental sustainability butt heads in many aspects of production of goods and disposal of waste. Truthfully, it is almost impossible for both to coexist peacefully without totally reinventing the consumerist economy over-exploiting the Earth’s resources to nothing.

I have felt for a long time that we buy ore thanwe need. The essentials of what we need are food, clothing, and shelter, and everything else is an added bonus, usually for embracing individuality. Going ‘without’ certain items would be perfectly fine with me, seeing that humans lasted just fine without many of the things we have today.

A good environmental steward should be conscious of what he or she consumes, as there are finite resources on the planet and there has to be enough for everyone, today, tomorrow, and then rest of the planet’s existence. It is almost like going to a party. When you’re a guest, you don’t want to be rude and eat all the food they brought out yourself. Instead, you take what you need so the rest of the guests can enjoy the party. It’s the same for the planet.

How might UNE’s maker space be a place of “ethically sustainable innovation”?

The University’s maker space is where students can bring their ideas into reality. Here, students can build prototypes and models of their ideas, or even build them fully. This unique spot on campus is where innovation and creativity is found, which makes it an ideal space to experiment with ideas which could benefit the environment.

What materials do you interact with on a daily basis that you would want to be “green” here at UNE?

• furniture (desks, chairs, tables, couches, etc.)
• bathrooms (paper towels, toilet paper, etc.)
• clothing
• paper, pencils, pens
• food
• computers

What happens to your “stuff” that gets thrown away here on campus?

From the minute I put my ‘stuff’ in the garbage can anywhere on campus, I send it on a journey. First, it gets brought to a dumpster, where a garbage truck will eventually come to clean it out. That gargage truck will bring the trask from the University to EcoMaine, a trash incinerator. Once dumped at EcoMaine, this garbage gets incinerated in a large building. But after incineration, my trash is now a combination of chemicals, smoke, and GHGs which gets emitted into the atmosphere. EcoMaine, however, uses some of the emissions to generate electricity.

What “uh-oh” moments did you encounter when reading this chapter?

Reading this chapter, I became increasingly scared to think about the future of our society. Like the woman from the video said, we aren’t the dreamers for trying to change society for the sake of the planet; if anything, we are the realists actually trying to make sure there’s a future for our children. The rate we consume materials, especially in the United States is both unreasonable and unimaginable. Living in this country, we have been conditioned to believe all these items will be available to us anytime. But this has led us to take for granted the very fact that we can go to store and buy exactly what we need. I look around at all my friends and family, even myself often times, purchasing items for the sake of buying them. This unsustainable habit, having started within the last 200 years, is what will drive humans to oblivion.