38 pages • 1 hour read
Annie LeonardThe Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health—and a Vision for Change
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapter 4-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Consumption”
In extraction, processing, and distribution, the consumer doesn’t play a direct role. They become significant in consumption. Cool Stuff is a common trope in pop culture. Our heroes are treasured not only for their personalities, but also for their possessions. Leonard draws a distinction between using goods and services to meet ones needs, or “consumption in the abstract,” (144) and consumerism and overconsumption. We should not define our self-worth through the things we own. To highlight the excesses of consumption, Leonard cites the death of a temporary worker from Haiti named Jdimytai Damour who was trampled to death at a Walmart on Black Friday in 2008.
Consumption is described as a patriotic duty that keeps the economy running and provides jobs. Before World War II, the economy largely ran on production and extraction. In the post-war period, consumption became the primary economic driver. Two-thirds of the American economy is spent on consumer goods. Despite this, Americans are unhappy. Citizens of the Congo, which at this point in time was war torn, reported higher happiness levels than Americans. American is caught in the “work-watch-spend” (157) treadmill. America has driven global consumer buying, but consumption of Stuff is rising globally. Globally, many people actually need to consume more to eliminate poverty. For this to be possible, rich countries need to consume less.
There are alternatives. Downshifters direct their attention to community building, leisure, and self-development. This voluntary simplicity prioritizes well-being over wealth. This movement is sometimes criticized as being privileged. Poor people involuntarily live with less.
The two main tricks to stimulate consumer spending are planned obsolescence and advertising. Planned obsolescence is making goods “designed for the dump” (161) that are intended to be thrown away and replaced. This encourages people to replace products sooner than necessary. Cell phones, for example, have an average life span of one year. They are not actually technologically obsolete when we throw them away. Repairs have become less common while new products have gotten cheaper. Advertising sells us new projects. The pressure to buy more Stuff is tied to social pressure and the desire to express our identity and status.
Each American has a consumer self and a community/citizen self. Our consumer self is validated and nurtured, and it drowns out our other identities.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Disposal”
Once we buy consumer goods, they begin to depreciate, or lose value. There are exceptions: luxury items, antiques, jewelry. We throw things away because we are tired of them, we want new things, or we don’t how to repair Stuff. There is a social stigma to reuse. This needs to change. Many people don’t know to repair things anymore.
Waste is divided into several categories: industrial waste, municipal solid waste (MSW), packaging, construction and demolition waste, medical waste, and electronic waste. Industrial waste is the by-products of extraction and production. This waste contains hazardous materials, and 97% of the energy and ingredients that go into making Stuff is wasted. Industrial waste is the largest source of waste. Municipal solid waste is the Stuff that we throw away from our homes and offices, encompassing both garbage and recycling. Usually this waste is placed in bins on a curb. Construction and demolition waste (C&D) include materials such as concrete, wood, drywall, and pipes amongst other things.
In Germany, government regulations on packaging drastically reduced the amount of packaging used and encouraged companies to use more sustainable practices.
Leonard argues that municipalities should deal with biowastes and biodegradable materials that are compostable. All other materials should fall under extended producer responsibility (EPR). Under EPR, the companies that produce products must deal with the product at the end of the products lifecycle. This gives producers incentive to design more sustainable products. EPR is an essential complement to recycling and promotes corporate accountability.
Our waste is either buried our burnt. Some of it is recycled. Sanitary landfills bury garbage so it isn’t exposed to groundwater or air. This means that the trash will barely decompose. Landfills are toxic, always leak, and contribute to pollution and climate change. Incinerators, which burn garbage, are incredibly toxic and release airborne poisons. Composting is an effective solution.
Epilogue Summary
We need to focus on “the quality of our life, rather than the quantity of our Stuff” (236). Less convenience is not a sacrifice, but a reframing of what matters to us. We need to get off the “work-watch-spend treadmill” (236). Leonard cites her own life as evidence that this possible, describing the tight knit community she lives in where people share Stuff, spend time together, and help each other. Sharing is the key concept. There are two types of sharing: specific reciprocity and generalized reciprocity. In specific reciprocity, individual trades are measured and negotiated. In generalized reciprocity, it is more casual sharing of resources. This is more efficient, based on trust, and fun.
Individual lifestyle choices alone aren’t enough. The changes required are immense, and require action by “government, banks, labor unions, media, cultural trendsetters, schools, and corporations and business owners” (239). We have to change the way the system works. Leonard outlines four paradigm shifts that are needed: redefining progress, ending war, internalizing externalities, and valuing time over Stuff. First, we turn to the GDP to measure how countries are doing. This places the economy as the most important measure of a society. We need to measure progress by how things prioritize the well-being of people and the planet. Secondly, war is both expensive and environmentally devastating. This money should be invested in communities. Third, businesses should be responsible for the costs of extracting, producing, moving, and disposing of Stuff. Finally, we need to shift our individual relationship to consumption.
Leonard concludes with a utopian vision of the future with strong community ties and life is sustainable. There are alternatives to our current system and change is inevitable. There are people all over the world fighting for a more just future and Americans are making progress on sustainable living.
Chapter 4-Epilogue Analysis
Leonard uses comparison to ground the numbers she cites. For example:
While eliminating hunger and malnutrition would have cost $19 billion, people spent $17 billion on pet food in the United States and Europe combined. And our tab for ocean cruises came to $14 billion, although it would have cost just $10 billion to provide clean drinking water for everyone (146).
One of Leonard’s key arguments against consumerism is that it doesn’t make us happy; rather, connecting to other people and experiencing the natural world does. In 1957, 35% of Americans described themselves as very happy, the highest level recorded. While consumption has increased dramatically, we are not happier. It is reasonable to conclude that more money and more Stuff doesn’t make us happy. Buying more Stuff means we have to work more, and we have less time with our friends, families, neighbors, and communities. Now, 25% of Americans report not having someone to talk to about a personal problem. Emotional and logistical support provided by friends and communities has been reduced.
America is not a nation of consumers and this paradigm needs to be shifted. To develop this argument, Leonard describes how consumerism was promoted over the course of the 20th century. Consumerism became essential as capitalism became the dominant economic model because it requires constant growth. The focus on ethical consumption misses the larger issue, and the question of ethical production is insufficient. Instead, we should ask whether we need a product. Leonard highlights the appearance of choice. The meaningful choices about how things are produced and what ingredients go into them are not offered; this is a childish idea of freedom. Rights come with responsibilities, and our choices have consequences. Further, “what is best for the corporation is not always best for the consumer” (172).
Leonard draws connections between social issues. For example, a large portion of C&D can be recovered and reused. A lot of electronic waste in the United States is sent to prisons to be processed. This is a dangerous job and exposes prisoners to hazardous materials. Another example is the exporting of waste abroad. American waste is sent to regions in the global South, which has environmental and public health consequences for these communities.
Leonard frequently draws from her own experiences working for environmental organizations abroad. In her analysis of waste, for example, she describes her experiences in Bangladesh, South Africa, and Haiti. By doing so, Leonard grounds her analysis in lived experience and adds a human perspective to the science.
To conclude the book, Leonard turns to recycling, which is “amazing in its ability to stir people—some people are inspired by it, many proud of it, others bored, cynical, or even angered by it” (228). Recycling is most people’s entry point into environmentalism: It provides a sense of tangible accomplishment and keeps materials in use, which reduces the need for more ingredients to be extracted. However, while recycling rates are increasing, so are total waste rates. The goal must be to waste less, not to recycle more.
