THE 20 minute The Story of Stuff video has gone viral again. The video which was released by Annie Leonard in 2007, is being searched all over the internet after its creator, Annie Leonard released a 300 page book recently which expands on the saga entailed by the video.

The Story of Stuff video was a short film which looked at the American cycle of wastage, where excessive consumerism had led to myraid obsession with stuff, leading to excessive trash all over the planet. Annie Leonard had shown this theme through animation, detailing the life of material goods - from production, marketing, purchase or consumption and wastage.

Annie Leonard has in The Story of Stuff book, titled "The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities and Our Health - and a Vision for Change", expanded on The Story of Stuff film, putting in a lot of details over the process of extracting resources, production of material goods, their consumption and disposal. The book provides a worldview on the cycle of wastage and even brings to fore those people who are really working for world development.

She says, "Whenever I go to buy something I get sidetracked, thinking of how it got here. It's an occupational hazard. I spent a decade traveling around the world, visiting the factories where our stuff is made and the dumps where it goes when we don't want it any more. What I learned makes it impossible for me to look at anything and not see the journey it made through the global take-make-waste system."

Annie Leonard said, her purpose of writing this book was the tens of thousands of emails asking for more information than could possibly fit into the film. The book further explores issues and shares the journey in both personal and material ways.

The Story of Stuff film and now book author, Annie Leonard is a known critic of excessive consumerism.