LAB4

There are 5 stages in the "Materials economy". Extraction - production - distribution - consumption - disposal.
__Extraction:__

Extraction is the first stage of the materials economy system. It's the beginning of the whole process which is taking the resources. And according to Annie Leonard it simply is a fancy word for "trashing" the planet. And because the production and needs are enormous, especially from developed countries, we are extracting more resources than we should. Developed countries like the U.S. would take resources from other lands in the 3rd world countries, so their land is getting trashed as well. We are severely damaging out planet's natural resources.

__Production:__

The next stage followed after extraction is "production", which, according to Annie Leonard, is a process where we use "energy to mix with chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic contaminated products". There are enormous amounts of the toxic we are bringing into our production system and some or most of them can be toxic to our environment and our health, and we are exposed to toxic materials in our everyday life for things like pillows, computers and even in our food. And tonnes of workers are working in an environment where they are exposed to reproductive toxics. So it's not just the resources that get wasted, it's the people and the whole communities and it is a major contributor to the pollution.

__Distribution:__

After we turn these resources into products, we are moving onto the next stage - Distribution, which is when we sell all the toxic junks. The industry is trying to keep the prices as low as possible by not paying enough to the workers and avoiding buying insurances. The low prices keep people buying and keep the inventory moving. In Leonard's theory, we don't really pay for what we are buying. The true costs of the production are externalized by company owners.

__Consumption:__

Consumption is the heart of the system. We have all been identified as "consumers" in this system and out task is just to shop till we drop. However 99% of the stuff we sell in north american goes to waster after 6 month's of use. In order to ramp up the US economy after World Word Two, it was designed that consumption would become the drive of the whole system and producing consumer goods became the goal of the economy. Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence are two strategies they use to make us believe in consumer goods, along with advertisements and media playing a big role in this aspect.

__Disposal:__

After the stage of consumption, we reach the final stage in the system which is "disposal". When we are done with our stuff we bring them out to the garbage, and that's disposal. Garbage will be dumped in the landfill either with or without going through but process of burning, but either way it's polluting the air, the land, water and changing the climate. Toxics get released during burning and sometimes make new super toxics. Sometimes companies export the garbage to overseas as well and pollute other lands. With our consumption rate even recycling is not a solution.