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The Secret Life of Stuff

The Secret Life of Stuff

A Manual for a New Material World

Summary

Wouldn't you like:

- Products that don't damage the environment?

- A better way of life without agonising about your 'footprint'?

- To really know your stuff?


Climate change? Biofuels? Nuclear power? Landfills? Recycling? Renewable energy? Environmental issues can feel overwhelming. But, in fact, it is simple; it all comes down to one thing - stuff.

Our use of the Earth's resources - whether a crisp packet or a cargo ship, a T-shirt or a wind turbine - has an inescapable impact on our future. In The Secret Life of Stuff, Julie Hill uncovers the origins and the true cost of what we use. Her inventory of over-consumption may shock but it is the first step towards overcoming waste. The misuse of stuff is not your fault, it's a product of history. But it is only by understanding what has gone wrong, that everyone - politicians, business people and us as consumers - can create a new and better material world.

Reviews

  • Hill is refreshingly, defiantly optimistic... The more you read this book, the more you come to realise that the future she describes isn't the pie-in-the-sky environmentalist wish-fulfilment fantasy it first appears - it's within our grasp
    Roger Cox, Scotsman

About the author

Julie Hill

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