Former Greenpeace employee and eco-lecturer Annie Leonard found herself wondering where all her ‘stuff’ came from and where it went when she was done using it. Well she took her curiosity to the extreme, traveling the world for 10 years to find out the answer.

She shares what she found out in a short but powerful video, The Story of Stuff. In the vid, Annie takes us through the chain of where the resources for our stuff come from, how they’re used and what happened when we throw things away.

Annie's bottom line: we’re using too much stuff! Our health, wallets, and earth are feeling the effects of our 'stuff' overdose too.

In the last thirty years 1/3 of the planet’s natural resource space has been consumed, totally gone!

And the U.S. is one of the worst eco-offenders. We have less than 4% of our original forest left, and are gobbling up most of our other resources at the same rate, using way more than our share. We have 5% of the world population and using 30% of world’s resources.

All of this just to make sure we have enough stuff to buy. The worst part? 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed within six months. This garbage (4.5 pounds a DAY for the average American) taints our air, land, water and could even lead to climate change.

At the end of the vid, Annie reminds us that people created our current system so it’s not just something we’re stuck with – we have the power to change it!

The Story of Stuff has made its way into classrooms across the country, because many teachers say that the environmental sections of science books are not enough to teach what is really going on out there. Some however are not happy with the alarming message, and wish that Annie would do more than just scare people about the astronomical amount of stuff that we use, and throw away.

Some students posted a video response to it on YouTube, asking the filmmaker, Annie Leonard to give them tips on how to make things better.

Find out for yourself how you can be greener everyday, and watch the video below for more eye-opening info about America’s stuff!