I hope you all had a restful holiday week.

I spent my free time last week reading a fascinating new book by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Mark Schapiro. The book is “Exposed – The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: Who’s At Risk and What’s At Stake for American Power.” In this book, Schapiro compares approaches to environmental and health regulations regarding electronics, chemicals, food and more in the U.S. and the European Union. He documents the differences in the regulations as well as some of the factors leading to these differences.

The overall finding of the book is that the E.U. is adopting a series of new regulations which aresignificantly more protective of health and the environment than the regulations in the U.S. The U.S., in turn, is increasingly becoming the market of last resort for those products too toxic to be accepted in the E.U. or a number of other countries which are following the E.U.’s regulatory lead. For example, theRemoval of Hazardous Substances directive, known as the RoHS directive, requires that six toxic substances — mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium and two chemical flame retardants – be removed from all electronically powered devices made or sold in EU countries. Schapiro explains that “The RoHS directive became law after hundreds of studies suggested the ingredients could have potent carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting effects. The EU also wanted to see its electronics recycled – and none of those six substances are recyclable. They are too toxic.”

As “”Exposed” explains, prior to the RoHS directive, many European electronic manufacturers and retailers warned of economic catastrophe if forced to redesign their products without these toxic chemicals. But that didn’t happen. Business is humming along fine and European consumers of electronic gadgets are free from a number of known toxics to which we, in the U.S., continue to be exposed.

Mid-way through reading this book came Christmas. My 15 year old nephew got an ipod touch. My daughter and her 12 year old cousin sang and danced to music on her ipod. I went jogging with a Zen portable music player. On the flight home from my family gathering, I noticed that about a third of the passengers had some shiny new electronic gadget to play music or otherwise keep them busy. My guess was that few of these people know that their portable music players contain known toxic chemicals. And fewer still probably know that these same chemicals are outlawed in Europe.

Here’s the deal: I am not against music. In fact, I love music. I am grateful to be able to have music in our lives. However, I don’t think we should have to risk exposureto toxic chemicals in order to crank the tunes. Likewise, the workers who manufacture these devices and who recycle them at the end of their life shouldn’t be exposed to toxic chemicals either.

If it is possible to make electronics in Europe without these toxic chemicals, then it is possible here. We need to demand this.

Schapiro writes “Americans are being exposed to hazards from which their European peers are being protected. In one industry after another, a new double standard is emerging: that between the protection offered Europe’s citizens, and those afforded to Americans. Repeatedly, American companies that have been forced to meet higher standards in Europe, claim to Americans that they cannot do the same thing back in the United States. Why can’t companies do in America what they’re already doing in Europe?”

Schapiro also explains: “The EU has been demanding that its industry take responsibility for the collateral health damages caused by its products, and it has done so with innovations that are leading the world.”

I’d like to suggest some actions for all of us in the New Year.
1. Check out Mark Schapiro’s book Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007) Tell your friends, tell your neighbors.

2. Photocopy sections of the book and send them to elected officials and electronics producers asking “Why Not Here?” Why has the U.S. gone from being a leader to a laggard in regulating for environmental and health protection? If companies can make electronics without super toxics in Europe, why not here? Our children, our communities deserve the strongest possible environmental and health protection too!

3. Contact one of the many excellent groups working on environmental health issues in the electronics industry to get more involved. Here are some suggestions; please post other recommendations or ideas also.

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
www.svtc.org
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a diverse organization engaged in research, advocacy and grassroots organizing to promote human health and environmental justice in response to the rapid growth of the high-tech industry

Basel Action Network
www.ban.org
BAN works to ensure that exports of hazardous electronic waste (Particularly from the USA) to developing countries, exposed by BAN, are eliminated and replaced with producer responsibility and green design programs/legislation.

Electronics Take Back Coalition
www.computertakeback.com
ETBC works to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

Let’s crank the tunes this New Year’s Eve and into the future while we work together for toxic-free tunes in the U.S. and globally. There is simply no need to have all these toxic chemicals in our music players and other electronics. And if we make our voices heard, we can change this. Europe has already shown that it is possible.

Cheers,
Annie

As this year draws to a close and I review the highlights of 2007, hearing from so many of you is at the top of my list. In releasing the film, The Story of Stuff, I feel like we took the temperature of the world and found that there are in fact many thousands of us who share the same dis-ease at the current consumer-crazed, throw away, unsustainable and unjust society. I am entering the New Year full of hope that there are so many of us, enough to chart a different path.

I have received over a thousand emails from people all over the world sharing their responses and own stories about Stuff. I love reading the stories from all of you, some of which cracked me up. One viewer asked me for the demographics of the DVD requests so she could move to the town with the most requests in order to have a stronger allied community. (The most requests have come from Oregon, I think.) I also enjoy reading the critical emails, as they help me understand the thinking of those whose analysis is far different than mine. So thanks for all those emails.

And who spray painted “storyofstuff.com” on that big piece of plywood propped up on the Van Ness exit off the highway in San Francisco? That was hilarious!

Thanks for helping to get the word out about the film, and more so for using it to start discussions about strategies for change. As of last week, the Story of Stuff website had been visited over 520,000 times in countries all over the world. The 99 countries with the highest viewership in order of number of viewers is: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, India, Netherlands, France, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Ireland, Hong Kong, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, Greece, Denmark, China, Romania, Austria, South Africa, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Estonia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Croatia, South Korea, Hungary, Luxembourg, Egypt, Taiwan, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, Iceland, Venezuela, Iran, Serbia and Montenegro, Latvia, Qatar, Ecuador, Bahamas, Uruguay, Panama, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Jordan, U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, Guatemala, Cayman Islands, Slovakia, Morocco, Jamaica, El Salvador, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Kenya, Lithuania, Netherlands Antilles, Malta, Cyprus, Nepal, Bahrain, Barbados, Bolivia, Honduras, Belarus, Cambodia, Macedonia, Myanmar, Bermuda, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nicaragua.

Many people have asked for or offered to help with translations of the film. Soon in the new year we will start working on those, as well as closed captioning, so we’ll be in touch with everyone who asked about either soon.

In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy new year, a new year which brings us closer to peace, sustainability and equity.

All the best,
Annie

I’ve spent the last two weeks sorting through about a thousand emails from people around the world who have contacted us to share ideas about the issues in The Story of Stuff.

A significant chunk of the emails and DVD requests has come from teachers all the way from elementary through college level. I have heard from teachers all over the U.S. as well as many other countries who wanted to share ideas or experiences on using The Story of Stuff in a classroom or other educational setting.

These teachers’ comments and ideas have been so inspiring and useful that I thought it would be good for educators to share ideas with each other via this blog so other teachers can also read them.

So, teachers, if you have used Story of Stuff, or if you are thinking about how to use it, please respond to this posting so we can have a broader conversation about creative and effective ways to use the film.

I spoke to one middle school teacher in California who showed the film to his students, then asked each to research and present to the class ideas about solutions for some aspect of the problem. Many of the students researched the terms that are presented in the green arrow at the end of the film, and explained how each is a part of a solution.

I’ve also heard from organizations that have resources available for educators on sustainability and related issues. Three of these groups are listed below. Please share URLs and leads for other good resources for teachers too so we can keep learning from each other.

Thanks teachers!
Have a peaceful, restful winter break and let’s keep talking in the New Year.

Cheers,
Annie

Center for Ecoliteracy (ecoliteracy.org)

The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living. The Center is a pioneer in providing tools, ideas, and support for combining hands-on experience in the natural world with curricular innovation in K-12 education. It administers a grant program and donor-advised funds, publishes extensively online and in print, and offers resources, seminars, and technical assistance in support of systemic change.

Rethinking Schools (rethinkingschools.org)

Rethinking Schools began as a local effort to address problems such as basal readers, standardized testing, and textbook-dominated curriculum. Since its founding in 1986, it has grown into a nationally prominent publisher of educational materials, with subscribers in all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and many other countries.

Green Schools Network (greenschools.net)

The Green Schools Initiative was founded in 2004 by parent-environmentalists who were shocked by how un-environmental their kids’ schools were and mobilized to improve the environmental health and ecological sustainability of schools in the U.S. We believe it is essential to protect children’s health – at school and in the world beyond school – and we work to catalyze and support “green” actions by kids, teachers, parents, and policymakers to eliminate toxics, use resources sustainably, create green spaces and buildings, serve healthy food, and teach stewardship. We are working to leverage the schools sector to transform the school environment – and the markets that supply schools – to improve health and sustainability. We are starting our efforts with schools throughout California; in the longer-term, we plan to use our success in California to mobilize efforts to green schools nationally.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who have written such encouraging emails about the Story of Stuff and have shared it with friends. Thanks also to those who have shared alternative view points. A friend of mine likes to say: “if you agree with everyone on everything in your coalition, then your coalition isn’t big enough.” I understand that to mean that we need to reach out beyond our comfort zones to connect with people, to share our ideas and hear their ideas. I am happy to report that The Story of Stuff appears to do facilitating just such conversations.

Thanks to the power of on-line communities, including many of you forwarding the film to friends, the Story of Stuff has been viewed by over 100,000 people in this first week since its launch last Tuesday!

I’ve received emails from places as far a field as Argentina, Belarus, China, and South Africa. We’ve had offers to translate it into Arabic, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese and other languages. It has been screened in gatherings in the U.S., Spain, the Philippines, and at a civil society gathering at the climate convention in Bali, Indonesia this past weekend.

It is wildly reassuring to know that so many people, all over the world, share a growing dis-ease with the consumption-crazed, toxics-based models of production and consumption and want to chart a new path.

I am excited to discuss more of the specific points you all have emailed and commented on in the coming weeks. First though, I want to answer 3 logistical questions that a number of you have asked about references, on-line movie navigation, and using the film.

Sources: I’ve received some emails asking for references for¬†the facts in the film. There is an annotated and footnoted script on the webpage. The site also hosts a glossary, a fact sheet and helpful ideas for group discussions or activities after watching the film.

Movie Navigation: I’ve received emails asking if it is possible to just watch parts of the film, without going all the way back to watch the whole thing again. Yes! Just click on the headings on the top of the screen to play each chapter, get more information and contact organizations working on those issues.

Using Story of Stuff: Yes, please use it! You may view and download it free. Please go ahead and burn it (not literally), share it, give it away for non-profit educational uses as much as you want.

One person wrote to me that she hoped if enough people see the film, and start questioning the¬†out-of-control consumerism and the systems that perpetuate it, then hopefully next “Black Friday” people won’t be sleeping in Best Buy parking lots; they’ll just be sleeping in!

Onwards,

Annie Leonard

A number of people have asked me how I got on this path of exploring the materials economy. It started in grade school and crystallized on a spring afternoon on Staten Island.

I grew up in Seattle, at that time a green and luscious city. My family would go camping every summer. Since this was in the days before DVDs in the back seats of family cars numbed young passengers, I’d look out the window, studying the landscape, for the whole drive. Each year, I noticed that the stores reached a bit further and the forests started a bit later than the previous year. I wondered where all those forests were going. I wondered how I could stop them from going away entirely.

It turned out to be fortuitous that I went to college in New York City, even though at the time it seemed an odd place to go for environmental studies. My college campus was on 116th street and my dorm room was on 110th street. Every morning I would groggily walk those 6 blocks, staring at the piles of garbage that line NYC’s street’s every dawn. Ten hours later, I’d walk back to my dorm, staring at the empty sidewalks.

I became increasingly intrigued with this microcosm of materials flow. I started looking into the trash each morning to see what was in those never-ending piles. It was mostly paper. Paper! That is where my beloved forests were ending up. In the U.S., 42 percent of industrial wood harvest is used to make paper. And about 40 percent of the stuff in municipal garbage is paper, all of which is recyclable or compostable if it hasn’t been treated with too many toxic chemicals. By simply recycling, rather than trashing, this paper, we could reduce our garbage by 40 percent, which would also drastically reduce pressure to cut forests and help with climate change and that doesn’t even get into the massive benefits of reducing paper use.

Once I realized that those morning trash piles were nearly half paper – were once forests – I was determined to find out where they were going. So I took a trip to the infamous Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. Coving 4.6 square miles (12 square km), Fresh kills, is one of the largest dumps in the world. When it was officially closed in 2001, some say its volume was greater than that of the Great Wall of China; it’s peaks 25 meters taller than the Statue of Liberty. I had never seen anything like it. I stood at its edge in absolute awe. As far as I could see in every direction were couches, refrigerators, boxes, apple cores, used clothes, stuff. You know how a gory car crash scene makes us want to turn away and stare at the same time? That is what it was like. I just couldn’t comprehend this massive mountain of materials, reduced to muck, by some system obviously out of control. I knew this was terribly wrong. I didn’t understand it back then, 20 years ago, but I vowed to figure it out. And I did. It’s the Story of Stuff.

I’ve spent much of the last two days emailing back and forth with colleagues around the world in a state of panic. Early Sunday morning, I received a call that three friends – from India, the Philippines and the U.S. – were detained in Indonesia. They were en route to the historic UN Framework on Climate Change Conference in Bali, taking place this week. Along with the official government delegates, many environmental and social justice activist are also attending the conference to share information and strategize about combating global warming. My friends planned to host a forum entitled ‚”Zero Waste for Zero Warming‚” at the conference, to educate others about the strong connection between waste disposal and climate change.

The three – Gigie Cruz, Shibu Nair, and Neil Tangri – stopped in Bandung at the invitation of a local organization opposed to the construction of a new garbage incinerator in their town. The local groups held an event, which drew 2,000 community members, to discuss the environmental, health and climate impacts of burning garbage. My friends were taken by the police on Saturday after speaking there about the ill effects of incinerating waste and advocating for healthier alternatives. At the police station, their passports were seized; they were subjected to lengthy interrogation and asked to sign a document in the Bahasa Indonesian language.

Gigie, Shibu and Neil have been able to send us period text messages reporting that no formal charges have been brought and they don’t feel their physical safety is in immediate danger. But they continue to be detained, and will likely be deported for speaking at a peaceful public education event about the environmental and health problems with burning garbage.

In contrast to the Neanderthal response of jailing people speaking about community well being, a network of active global citizens jumped into positive action. Within an hour of receiving the news, email alerts went out to activists working on sustainability, climate and waste issues around the world. Faxes and emails began flooding Indonesian embassies in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, calling for the safe release of the three Zero Waste experts. Leading environmentalists already at the Bali conference contacted people they knew in the Indonesian government, all the way up to the President. The combination of email activism and strong civil society networks demonstrated to the Indonesian police that the whole world really was watching.

I woke up this morning to learn that Gigie, Shibu and Neil have been transferred to a hotel, still under police custody, and will likely be deported soon, preventing them from speaking about‚ “Zero Waste for Zero Warming‚” at the critical UN Framework on Climate Change Conference.

Above all, I am just glad my friends are safe. I’m also grateful to be part of a growing global civil society movement seeking both environmental sustainability and social justice, which must include freedom to share environmental and health information. I look forward to that day that people aren’t jailed for speaking the truth about incinerators – both because freedom of speech is guaranteed everywhere, for everyone, and also because incinerators are a thing of the past and we’ve moved on to solutions that really do protect the environment, community health and the climate.

Note: for updates on the three activists detained in Bandung, Indonesia en route to the UN Framework on Climate Change Conference, please visit no-burn.org.