Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade

Minter successfully resists oversimplifying the issue China currently faces—with a growing middle class demanding more raw materials for new construction, the options are living with the pollution caused by recycling or the environmental consequences of mining for raw materials. Minter takes readers through the Shanghai market where parts are harvested from second-hand electronics, but finds that the more complex the technology, the harder it is to reuse the metals. In his first book, the Shanghai-based journalist charts the globalization of the recycling trade, fo

"The Economics of The Global Scrap Trade" according to Frederick S. Goethel. The scrap yards that I remember from my youth were what the author refers to as auto junkyards. I always believed they were the one and only place where scrap went, whether it was a car being sold in pieces or put into a crusher and turned into a pile of junk metal. I never really knew that there were places that specialized in other types of scrap, but I soon learned about the long history of scrap yards as I read this book.The. Khrysteen Tahn said I never knew garbage until I knew Adam Minter. "I never knew garbage until I knew Adam Minter." Of all the things I've said about him, that's how my husband chooses to quote me in the acknowledgements of his book?!?But you know what? It's true. I never gave much thought to what I threw out until I met Adam in "I never knew garbage until I knew Adam Minter" according to Khrysteen Tahn. "I never knew garbage until I knew Adam Minter." Of all the things I've said about him, that's how my husband chooses to quote me in the acknowledgements of his book?!?But you know what? It's true. I never gave much thought to what I threw out until I met Adam in 2009 and started listening to his stories about what he's seen in the last ten years as a scrap reporter in Asia. Back when I lived in North America, all I knew was tha. 009 and started listening to his stories about what he's seen in the last ten years as a scrap reporter in Asia. Back when I lived in North America, all I knew was tha. Burning down the house said Love this junk!. This book is intense. I had no idea. In my continuing education about the global economy and what commodities are considered valuable, this was an essential read. I had been into the recycling craze back in the '70s ( old hippie, giving away my age now) and given it quite some thought over the years. Most recently I have questioned the wisdom of buying new vehicles every few years even to have one that gets better gas mileage (

In Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter--veteran journalist and son of an American junkyard owner--travels deep into a vast, often hidden, five-hundred-billion-dollar industry that's transforming our economy and environment.With unmatched access to and insight on the waste industry, and the explanatory gifts and an eye for detail worthy of a John McPhee or a William Langewiesche, Minter traces the export of America's junk and the massive profits that China and other rising nations earn from it. When you drop your Diet Coke can or yesterday's newspaper in the recycling bin, where does it go? Probably halfway around the world, to people and places that clean up what you don't want and turn it into something you can't wait to buy. Junkyard Planet reveals that Americans might need to learn a smarter way to take out the trash.. What emerges is an engaging, colorful, and sometimes troubling tale of how the way we consume and discard stuff fuels a world that recognizes value where Americans don't