Martin Poole/Thinkstock
READ MORE ABOUT:
The conversation continues with Annie Leonard, director of The Story of Stuff Project, creator of the internet video sensation, and author of The Story of Stuff: The Book. Today's topic: Why the price we pay for our stuff doesn't always reflect what it's all really worth.
If you missed Parts 1 and 2 of this series, check them out here. And if you aren't one of the nearly 10 million people who have already seen The Story of Stuff videos, click here. Then read on!
Photo Credit: Christy McDonald
PG: Sometimes, when you talk about how cheap and disposable all of our Stuff has become, it sounds like you're advocating for us to pay more — which is a tough nut to swallow during a recession! People don't want to be told how they can spend their money, especially when they don't have enough of it, and they don't want to see the price of Stuff rising when it feels like life in general is getting more expensive. How do you speak to those concerns?
ANNIE SAYS: It’s not that I want Stuff to be more expensive, I want the prices to be fair and honest. I want the prices to reflect the full cost of making something. Right now, those costs still exist, but someone else is paying them and that just isn’t fair. For example, I can go to a store and buy some cheap electronic gadget for a few dollars. The production of that electronic may have wrecked a community in South Africa where the metals were mined, contaminated a river in China where waste from its production was dumped, and poisoned workers who can no longer have healthy children because of exposure to reproductive toxins.
All those costs could have been avoided if the company cared to, but instead – in order to keep the prices low and the profits high – they force all those costs onto others.
I don’t believe it's ethical to force communities and workers and even future generations around the world to pay the costs that a company doesn’t want to pay itself. If the companies weren’t allowed to externalize those costs, and they were reflected in the real price tag, it would be a motivation to make things safer, cleaner, more durable. How is it, for example, that buying an organic cotton t-shirt produced across town costs more than one made with toxic pesticides across the planet? The math isn’t right here so the prices are giving us false signals about the cost of the products. I just want the honest prices so we can make honest, fair decisions.
And yes, that means the prices of consumer items would likely go up. At the same time, the negative environmental and health impacts of making this stuff would go down. I think most people would rather pay a little bit more to have something that is safe and long lasting rather than having to replace all our gadgets and clothes so often. And for those at the really rough end of the economic spectrum, I’d like to see greater social equity, economic justice, and green healthy job opportunities overall, rather than just sentence poor people to both poison and poverty.
Which is why we need to change the rules about how stuff is made so that no one is exposed to toxic products. Otherwise we'll end up with two product lines: a clean safe product line for people who can afford it and toxic rejects for everyone else.
Tell us what you think: Do you think the current price of stuff is unfair? Would you be willing to pay more for safer products?
More from this series:
Questions for Annie Leonard, Part 1: The Problem With Greensumption
Questions for Annie Leonard, Part 2: What Can We Do About PVC?
