Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade
“Placing a box or a can or a bottle in a recycling bin doesn’t mean you’ve recycled anything, and it doesn’t make you a better, greener person: it just means you’ve outsourced your problem. Fortunately, if that realization leaves you feeling bad, there’s always the alternative: stop buying so much crap in the first place.”
Written by a junkyard-owner’s son, this is an exposé of the global trade in scrap material. From American scrap dealers to a Christmas tree light recycling factory in China (yes, there are factories that work exclusively with Christmas lights), Minter shows us what recycling looks like in practice. It’s not always pretty, not always safe, and not always good for the world.