Vroman 1
Hunter Vroman
Meryl Soto
English 151
20 February 2013
“Stuff”
Can you define stuff? This thing the world calls stuff has recently consumed many lives. There is a process to produce this thing “stuff” and it’s not pretty, this is known as the Materials Economy Cycle as said by Annie Leonard. This consists of five stages extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. First off is extraction, which is factories taking United States and even other countries lands recourses and using them to produce “stuff” and also filling it full of neurotoxins. Even some pillows, they are covered with brominated flame-retardants allowing neurotoxins to go straight to humans brains. These useful resources full of toxins are then put together to create “stuff” which is stage two, production. Next is distribution, these deadly toxic products are sold and sold fast. Stores are doing this so efficiently by externalizing costs as Annie Leonard calls it. These products are actually made to fail so then the people go buy another one wasting money that was earned by hard work to buy more cheap “stuff”. This is Consumption, and then the next big “stuff” is produced and society advertises, “if you don’t own or buy a lot of stuff you don’t have value.” The United States has been raised to feel the need to buy newer and better stuff as soon as it can, through television, adds, billboards, infomercials, movies, and celebrities. All this negativity is relayed to Americans