Annie Leonard鈥檚 at it again, this time divulging the dirty, toxic-filled secrets of the electronics industry in The Story of Electronics. Her point: Because of a designed-for-the-dump culture fostered by the industry, Americans create 25 million tons of e-waste every year. Even when that waste gets 鈥渞ecycled,鈥 the products frequently end up in a foreign country such as China where they are broken open to reclaim minute fragments of reusable or valuable materials inside.
In collaboration with the , Leonard鈥攌nown for making about , , , and 鈥攁ims to put the burden back on electronics companies. She calls this Product Take Back; so far, 22 of 23 states in the U.S. with use this approach. Other states introduced similar legislation in 2010.
Why wouldn鈥檛 we put the onus on producers? 鈥淒esigned for the dump sounds crazy, right?鈥 says Leonard, her now familiar voice giving off that calm-but-slightly-disapproving tone. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e trying to sell lots of stuff, it makes perfect sense. It鈥檚 a key strategy of the companies that make our electronics.鈥 It means making stuff that鈥檚 quickly ready for dumpsters and landfills, products that are hard to upgrade and way too expensive to repair.
What鈥檚 more, as soon as we trash our computers and cell phones and video consoles for newer versions, the toxic substances used to create them leech into the environment. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like we鈥檙e looking at this toxic mess and saying to companies, 鈥榊ou made it, but we鈥檒l deal with it,鈥欌 Leonard says. 鈥淚鈥檝e got a better idea: How about, 鈥榊ou made it, you deal with it.鈥欌
To date, Leonard鈥檚 attempts to bring attention to subjects has been wildly successful; her video has been viewed more than 12 million times. (The other three hit more than 2 million views.) If her latest film does its job and makes the change Leonard says is necessary, the electronics industry will shift from designing its products for the dump to designing them to last.