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Annie Leonard and the Story of Stuff

By Michal Crawford-Zimring

In 2007, when I was first learning about sustainability, I saw a short film entitled ‘The Story of Stuff.” It is a straightforward look at the underbelly of over-consumption.  The 20-minute film, an animated documentary, was produced and narrated by the author Annie Leonard. (@AnnieMLeonard) Narrating in front of an imaginary whiteboard as animated stick figures move across the screen, Annie told the story. It was a low-budget production, and groundbreaking.

The story of overconsumption is not just about consumers buying stuff and then throwing it away to buy more stuff.

Behind closed doors, corporate marketing strategists intentionally drive more consumption with marketing and advertising to keep consumers buying more and more stuff in line with the belief that economic growth is inevitable. But it’s all about profits.  

Basically, the story goes like this.  Stuff moves through a system. The system begins with the extraction of resources. Manufacturers use the resources to produce stuff. Once the stuff is made it moves to distribution. Distribution moves the stuff from manufacturing to marketing or selling usually online or in stores. Here is where the consumer sees the stuff and buys it. This is consumption.

Along with this system, there are costs both tangible and not. First, there is the cost of extraction, which in many cases results in degradation to the environment. This puts pressure on the people whose environment has been harmed by extraction, forcing them to now find a livelihood at the very production factories that are responsible. Often the factories use toxic chemicals to complete the production process, bringing further damage. Next comes distribution costs, mainly in the form of transportation. Once the stuff reaches the markets to be sold, the price does not reflect these costs, which remain largely unseen and unknown by the consumer. How can you figure that a plastic radio costs just $4.99?  It doesn’t. The consumer is encouraged not to worry too much about the low price, knowing that the item is disposable and easily replaced.  This is the disposal part, where the consumer throws the item away into the garbage bin which ends up in a landfill or incineration, releasing more toxic chemicals. Or it may wind up in the ocean. Only a small percentage is recycled.

How has this culture of consumerism been promulgated?

Consumers are bombarded with advertising designed by corporate interests to keep them believing that there is always something else to buy. There is also psychology associated with growth. It can involve the psychology that acquiring stuff will make us “feel better,” “be better,” or ‘feel accepted’. Here’s another sneaky thing – some things are priced so low that you can’t resist a bargain. Growth creates more money to do more shopping even for things we don’t need or especially value. We have come to believe that consumption is necessary and even patriotic. Remember when President Bush told us to go shopping after 9/11?

Annie Leonard concludes that this is a system that is unsustainable and needs to change. Corporate interests have not been exactly open to any change that would reduce growth and consumption, but a global pandemic seems to have given us citizens time and space to reconsider the ways in which we are living and change our behaviors concerning value and sustainability.    

The Story of Stuff launched a movement – the Story of Stuff Project that has resulted in more movies answering questions that you might have– like The Story of Electronics, Bottled Water, Microfibers, Microbeads, Cap and Trade. The latest film is The Story of Plastic is the Project’s first feature-length documentary and won a 2021 Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Documentary.

Here is where you can find these resources - https://www.storyofstuff.org