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Annie Leonard says Americans are so obsessed with stuff that we’re trashing our planet, without making ourselves all that happy. Leonard, a writer and activist who lives in Berkeley, spends her workday exploring what happens to stuff and educating the rest of us on how we can put the brakes on conspicuous consumption.

Leonard traveled the globe for ten years, discovering all aspects of stuff, and produced an animated 20-minute video called The Story of Stuff that became an internet sensation — viewed over 10 million times in over 200 countries. The response to the video produced so many e-mails and questions, that she followed that up with a book, also called  The Story of Stuff, published in March this year.

Jane Tierney sat down with the author last week and talked about why Leonard was worried living in Berkeley would make her go soft, why garbage feeds her soul and why we don’t all need a bundt pan.

You have talked about being neurotic about the lifecycle of stuff. Is there one particular type of stuff that makes for a more compelling case than another?

One of the top culprits is the production of electronics. It’s incredibly destructive. The mining of metals is linked to civil wars and human rights abuses in the Congo, and incredible environmental degradation. It’s responsible for the destruction of indigenous people’s habitat, and water supplies in Indonesia and South Africa. The production of metals used for electronics used to be in Silicon Valley, until people figured out how dangerous it was, and it moved to China. And these people [in developing countries] are showing up with increased cancer and birth defects.

And then there is the consumption of electronics, because of the speed with which we buy and chuck these things. The only product with a shorter life span than a cell phone is an ice cream cone! We just chuck them so fast. The average lifespan of a cell phone is less than a year. And most are still working. They have an over-identification as a status symbol.

I’m not against stuff. I’m against stuff that trashes the planet, or that poisons people, or with which we identify our sense of self-worth. Electronics have become such a premier status symbol that people buy them as a fashion accessory, rather than a usable item. Our e-waste is going to Africa, Asia. I’d say there’s room for vast improvements in the toxicity, and the out-of-control frenzy of our electronics. Our demand to electronics companies is: make them safe, make them last. We have a new film coming out on November 9th called The Story of Electronics.

Living in Berkeley, do you feel you are less isolated in your awareness of stuff?

Absolutely, and that’s good and bad. I’ve lived elsewhere in the world and didn’t feel like I was surrounded by allies. For a while, I didn’t want to live in Berkeley because I thought I would get too soft. We lived in “third world” countries for a number of years, and when we would come to visit our friends in Berkeley, I was worried that not seeing the day-to-day injustices of the world, I would grow soft. … Continue reading »