Something I watched a long time ago, and had an opportunity to watch again - "The Story of Stuff"
The Story of Stuff
The world
is growing at a rapid pace. The growing population demands goods at an
exponential rate. This results in increasing consumerism. However, the issue of
consumerism is larger than this. According to the "Story of Stuff",
consumerism was a ploy developed by the capitalists in consonance with
Governments in the early fifties, after the end of the Second World War, in
order to increase the usage of consumer goods and products. This was achieved
by planned and perceived obsolescence of products.
The present
product lifecycle as demonstrated in the video is shown to follow a linear path
with the highlight being on Consumption. Advertising plays a
huge role in propagating this agenda. This is a Myth, as nearly 99% of the
products produced & bought in the US alone, are thrown into the dumps
within 6 months. Worse is the damage being done to Earth, the environment and
the human race (especially the poor) in the entire process, right from mining
for resources, unclean production processes, unfair production and retail
processes and finally unhygienic disposal. Recycling does not really help as it
only looks at the problem down the product lifecycle where as the introduction
of the toxins and waste happen much higher up the production cycle.
I believe, what is required in the creation
of new products today is a holistic and sustainable approach – a sensitized cyclic path, which takes into
consideration the limits
of earth’s resources, is equitable in its approach and is clean and
wholesome and not wasteful. It should produce to meet the needs of the people
and not the greed of the people. There is a need for new methods to be
developed to ensure products are longer lasting, eco-friendly, non-toxic and
biodegradable. Most important of all, reverse processes of 'planned and perceived
obsolescence of products' have to be created and people need to be educated.
