Leonard expands on her eponymous Internet movie hit to further examine the costs of Americans' addiction to purchasing and discarding consumer goods. The book records her evolution from a toxic waste-trafficking expert to a crusader for more durable and adaptable consumer goods and is divided into an exploration into the hidden and enormous costs of extraction of natural resources (it takes 98 tons of materials to produce a ton of paper), production (to grow and process cotton for one T-shirt requires over 256 gallons of water and generates five pounds of CO2), distribution (mammoth container ships transport cheaply produced goods from one end of the world to another, polluting the seas and generating toxic waste), overconsumption (Americans spend two-thirds of the $11 trillion economy on consumer goods), and disposal (most of these items end up at the dump). All this makes for depressing reading, and some humor and less priggishness would have helped. But Leonard conveys her message with clarity, urgency, and sincerity-and her suggestions for making stuff more durable, repairable, recyclable, and adaptable is undeniably important. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Environmental activist Leonard debuts with a critical examination of the effects of human consumption on the global environment. Elaborating on the message of her widely viewed Internet video of the same title, the author argues that the consumer society's pursuit of growth for growth's sake is testing the limits of Earth's carrying capacity. To create often needless manufactured goods (stuff), we extract, use and dispose of natural resources in ways that harm people, workers and communities. Drawing on research and her own observations during travels in Asia and Africa for Greenpeace and other environmental groups, Leonard describes the startling scale of our stuff and the often little-recognized impacts of the "take-make-waste" economic model on the quality of people's lives. Mining the gold for an average gold wedding ring creates about 20 tons of hazardous waste, which is often dumped in rivers. U.S. book manufacturers use 300 million trees yearly. Some 400 million toxic electronic products are discarded each year in the United States; they often wind up in developing nations. Devoting a chapter to each stage of the life of stuffextraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposalLeonard blends facts, expert testimony and anecdotes from visits to factories, landfills and e-waste recycling facilities to create a vivid account of how waste is connected to disparate aspects of our lives. The author urges four major societal changes: redefining progress to value things that promote well-being; ending warfare, which drains money needed for change; adding the externalized costs (disease, environmental impacts, etc.) of stuff to the price of products; and reducing working hours to provide more time with friends and family and cut overconsumption. Leonard offers a utopian vision of an ecologically compatible U.S. economy by 2030, with no personal cars or polluting industries, less obesity and depression, and citizens having more influence than corporations. An earnest, reasoned contribution to the national conversation on sustainability. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* Why is there so much garbage, and where does it go? A Time magazine Hero of the Environment, Leonard has traveled the world tracking trash and its wake of destruction. Her investigations convinced her that the impossible dream of perpetual economic growth and the rampant consumer culture it engenders are the root causes of today's environmental crises. A rigorous thinker in command of a phenomenal amount of information, Leonard believes that we must calculate the full ecological and social cost of our stuff. So she takes us through the extraction of natural resources and the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of various products, documenting ecohazards and the exploitation of workers along the way. Drawing on her extensive research, gutsy fieldwork, and efforts to live green, Leonard condemns the endless barrage of advertisements, the plague of toxic synthetic chemicals, and such covertly deleterious inventions as the aluminum can. Not one to tout simple approaches to complex predicaments, Leonard instead offers hard facts, diligent analysis, and an ambitious vision in this comprehensive critique, calling for strict environmental laws, an end to overconsumption, zero waste, and a new social paradigm based on quality of life, not quantity of stuff.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

Leonard is an environmental activist who traveled the world investigating dumps and factories and the stages involved in producing the stuff we consume and then throw away when new goods enter the market. Troubled by countries that promote economic growth at any cost without understanding the long-term consequences of unregulated consumption, she launched in 2007 a 20-minute Internet film The Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com), which has generated over 7.3 million views globally. In this book version, Leonard explains that our consumer goods undergo extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal processes that are trashing the planet, diminishing our resources, exploiting workers, and contributing to high levels of disease and death. She advocates an international cooperative effort to develop domestic and international policies and laws that will reverse our planet's ecological decline and leave a sustainable world for future generations. Verdict According to Leonard, we all have a stake in saving the planet. She urges readers to learn to value stuff they truly need and avoid the forces that urge us to consume excessively. An important work for consumers of all ages. [The publisher says the book will be produced with the smallest possible carbon footprint: electronic copyediting, recycled paper, soy-based ink, etc.-Ed.]-Irwin Weintraub, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.