Junkyard Planet

Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade

By: Adam Minter

Narrated by: William Elsman

Bloomsbury presents Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter, read by William Elsman.

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. 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. 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. Junkyard Planet reveals that Americans might need to learn a smarter way to take out the trash.

©2013 Adam Minter (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

It is not the most entertaining subject - however the author does make it somewhat exciting

I really like the narrator and author is good. He is speaking from first hand experience and also as an observer with amazing amount of knowledge on the subject, this makes it worth a read or listen. It touches on society and with an economical view but sometimes camouflaged in novel-like literature; with characterizations of people he meet and places he goes that are a little overelaborate. It’s still an interesting perspective he takes and I always appreciate hearing from experts. Thank u

I was in the business and I had it all wrong.

This book was very well researched and documented. I have been scrapping for decades as a customer and for a short while as a primary first level buyer at the neighborhood level. The whole system is much different than I thought. It seams that when we are told we are “DUMPING” it can be the most efficient best use of an item we are done with but still has useful value.

has been updated!

so important to know where our garbage goes! it's going to outlive us if we don't do better

Must read for all scrap and recyclers

Very informative and insightful. I learned more about my industry listening to this than the last five years I’ve been in it.

Very Interesting, Very Detailed

Adam Minter's book on the secondhand market is much more engaging, but this one is good, too.

Fascinating industry that impacts us all !

Very well written account of the ins and outs of the scrap industry and its significant role in worldwide macroeconomics.

Fascinating

Fascinating story about what recycling really is. Makes you think about your own decisions. I wish that there was more to the story and there sure is!

Start Here to Learn about Recycling!

I just ended a short career in recycling coordination. Adam Minter’s 2 books were probably the 2 most reliable and thought out examinations of the industry.