Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade

This one had some very valuable information. It's definitely worth reading!To begin, I'd like to mention the (very few) negatives in the book: First, the author covers a wide area, however, he misses one of the great re-cycling activities of our time, ship breaking. I do wish that he had visited the ship breaking facility at Alang as this would have been an extremely worthwhile addition to the book. Second, he mentions "reduce, reuse, recycle," but he doesn't go into the subjects of reduce & reuse very much. Both of these are minor gripes and only take away from the book, what might have been valuable extra information. Perhaps the reduce & reuse portions of the phrase can be the genesis of another (most welcome) book (more on this below).The author grew up in a scrap yard in Minneapolis. I am slightly familiar with some of the historical topics that he mentioned as I have lived in the Twin Cities for the past 30+ years. There are two that might be of interest to the readers of this book. The first is NIMBY. In the late '90s a scrap company wished to install a Konderator metal shredder along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. This unit is similar to the ones mentioned in the book. The screaming over the installation of this unit was legion. The second is the scourge of copper harvesting from vacant and abandoned homes. I have seen 1/2 dozen of these over the past 3 years in Minneapolis alone. With the price of copper hitting highs, it has become almost expected to find vacant homes in the seedier parts of Minneapolis to have their copper stripped. // This is not unique. In the late '60s & early '70s, the price of copper also spiked. My father brought home a knife that had been almost burned through. When asked about it, he responded, "The police were called to the bridge house of one of the bridges across the Chicago River. A resident reported seeing a man in flames running and jumping into the river. Upon investigation, the police reported that someone had attempted to strip the copper buss bars that ran the DC motors used to lift the draw bridge! All that they found was a nick in the buss bar and the nearly melted knife." //So far as recycling goes, it's a great read on the scrap industry. It refutes the concept of "dumping" with regard to third world economies. Those folks desperately *want* the scrap. That said, the recycling is extremely unhealthy; however, it will be done as sourced from the USA, or other nations. It cannot be stopped. The author then goes into the technological changes in the recycling of cast off material (both large scale items like autos and what we call eWaste, electronics).All in all, worth your time and money.Additional note: The author mentioned the old mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle." Here are some things to think about:1) Reduce: We will need to re-evaluate our economy of general convenience. It the 1950s, we had returnable milk, soda, and beer bottles. The beer bottles, last to go away, disappeared in the late '80s & early '90s. To reduce, we need to revert to an economy that can again use returnable containers.2) Reuse (re-purpose): My favorite example of this is the old San Miguel beer bottles in the Philippines. When they get to a certain age, they no longer are used for beer. they are sold off (or diverted) to bottles of fish sauce and sold in the local stores. (And, as a last resort, are broken up into sharp shards. Then set in cement on the top of cement block walls as deterrents to cat burglars.) There are many other examples in the third world, and a smaller bunch in the USA.3) Recycle: The theme of the book. Reduce the items to component parts and re-introduce the (newly made) raw materials back into the manufacturing stream. Plastic milk bottles to composite plastic deck boards, for example.To this, I would like to add that we-all have also missed a bet. It should be, "Reduce, repair, reuse, and finally recycle." We seem to be using more & more items that are basically sealed units. Example: Look at tablets and cell phones. While it is advantageous to have the batteries soldered in place, it only means that the unit will be dumped when the battery dies. And, yes, I understand that a 2-year old tablet, or cell phone, is completely obsolete in today's market. But, come on folks, what about all of the other things we toss in the trash?Finally, in the 19th century, old clothes and scrap cloth were cut up and re-sewn into bed quilts. In the 21st century, old cell phones are stripped of their chips, which are reprogrammed and put into electronic toys. All I can say is that I look back with a heavy heart to my grandmother's button box and her string drawer.Some personal examples (just for fun): 1) My Maytag washing machine broke down (PERISH THE THOUGHT!). The (former) Maytag Repairman stated that I could quite easily do the repair myself. He sold me the replacement part (a re-circulating pump motor) and after a bit of putzing, I had it installed & the machine up and running. The motor was a sealed unit & went into the recycling bin. 2) My front deck (being 35 years old) was suffering from rotting deck boards. I removed the boards & replaced them; however, i didn't toss the old boards in the trash. I de-nailed them & tossed the nails in the recycling bin. Then I trimmed off the rotten parts. I cut them up & re-assembled them as garden benches. About 70% of the lumber was salvaged. At $0.50~$1.00/linear foot, that cedar (once 2x6, now trimmed to 2x4) was still quite valuable.

The stories about the scrap industry are very good and provided a lot of insight I had not picked up on before. That was the good.The bad is Minter's own goofy world view. He goes out of his way to talk about the scrap industry in a good and in my opinion well deserved light, while slamming the primary metals industry. For instance he has a short section where he visits an environmentalist in Minnesota who suggests that the entire Boundary Waters region is on the brink of collapsing into a giant sink hole due to a well known and welll studied, and extremely predictable phenomena called mine subsidence that is only an issue in very shallow mines, as if it is unknown, ignored, and mysterious. Compared to the reporting on the scrap industry, the treatment of mining is nothing short of shameful and losuy reporting. Unlike a scrap yard which Minter describes even his own family business moving out of town, mines are stuck in one spot, bound by the peculariaty of the Earth itself and the properties that make one small area worth mining. They must remain there for frequently decades, having a huge influence on the nearby communities, and any that have been in operation at least in the first world in the last 50 years are required to clean things up afterwards. The mine where I currently work at for instance must create 3 acres of wetlands for every acre disturbed according to their permits. Water quality and quantities must be continuously monitored, and any issues must be fixed. Discharges are far cleaner than the local environment, and in some cases the environmental impact of water that is too clean has been called into question. Far be it for any of the operations Minter describes to meet those kind of regulations.I originally picked up Minter's book because my profession (mineral processing) is trained in physical separation of materials. It doesn't matter if the starting material is rock out of a mine or pulling water out of tomato paste to make ketchup, or separating scrap metals. The principles are the same. In this respect, Minter's book is really good, although the major focus is on China and other places where mechanical sorting systems are comparatively rare. Mining itself for the most oart only got out of the hand sorting business about 60 years ago, though it still goes on for some things. One of my first jobs was working in a quarry operation and pulling wood and metal contaminants out of a stream of recycled, crushed rock from an old mining operation, in the US in 1996 so I have personal experience with what Minter describes.I was also dismayed by what Minter calls "games". Thus is the usual underhanded stuff that js rife in the scrap business. The last place I worked was the oldest pipe plant in the US, melting down what amounted to around 60 shredded cars an hour to make water pipe for New York City, Philadelphia, and others in the Northeast. There was always a love-hate relationship with scrap dealers because of the ridiculous games. I just don't understand why this aspect of the industry persists in a business world that has for the most part walked away from playing "games" of swindling each other, with more important issues such as global competition at the fkrefront.Anyways...great read although it is heavily focused on China with only a bare mention of the scrap business in India and Europe, and casting the US is the most negative light possible.

The most interesting book written about the waste industry. Should be compulsory reading for anyone trying to understand global markets, environmental issues or product design. Can't wait to read his next one and hope he will write an update on all the changes to the Chinese markets over the last few years.

Who would think that a book about scrap metal recycling could be such a page turner. Minter is a guy who loves junkyards, particularly those that deal in scrap metal. He provides an in-depth tour of junkyards and how they recycle in both the USA and China. In doing so, he provides a better understanding of globalization and the Chinese economy than any other book I have read so far. Most impressive are his portraits of Chinese that have lived the Chinese equivalent of the "American Dream. "

The author is the grandson of a junkyard owner but chose to be a journalist. He takes us around the U.S. and the Far East and describes good and bad recycling facilities. And describes the history of junk yards in the U.S. It is well written, personal and contains interesting information about the recycling industry. One would expect it to be dry but because he also describes the colourful personalities who ply their trade in the industry he does not get bogged down in what might a fairly esoteric topic.

Adam is really putting all strings together and helps to make sense on scenes we can see on the street but haven't consciously perceived until this eye opening report. Easy read, lively reported and presented, relevant subject. A recommendation to anyone being curious about where /how things go when you slept them go. I live in China for over 8 years and always wondered how recycling works and how the "recycling stations" on the street contribute and can provide livelihood to families - now I start understanding it.

I just finished reading this book. I'm not a shopper and also don't throw things out (too quickly). I give 'stuff' away when no longer needed rather than throwing it out and I recycle religiously. I thought I knew a few things about where 'stuff' went after it's no longer useful, but I knew nothing. Where does your phone come from? Where does it go when you're done with it? You have no idea. This is an important book