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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I reviewed this book at the GreenSalem.com website.
http://greensalem.com/blog/book-review-junkyard-planet/
http://greensalem.com/blog/book-review-junkyard-planet/
informative
medium-paced
I loved this book way more than I expected to. Eye opening about international trade and manufacturing. Written almost as a memoir by a third-generation scrap industry kid from Minneapolis who ends up living in China and writing about the international scrap recycling business. Very well written by someone who, in the end, I feel that I'd welcome to my home for dinner (and a conversation about junk...).
So being a kid at the time, I didn't recall the country being awash in a sea of junked cars while I was growing up. The high price of steel, relative to recycling costs, pulled us out of the sea as it made it worthwhile for everyone to haul their junk to the scrapyard and for the scrapper to recycle. Most likely your parents woody station wagon is holding up some building somewhere in China these days. Interesting review of the world wide scope of the junk trade and make a great case for reuse over recycling.
I didn't finish. I gave this book almost a month, and I liked it -- really, it was interesting -- but more as in, I would've liked to have read this in a long-form article. After the first 100 pages, I simply wasn't compelled to read any more. The story of what happens to our scrap is interesting. I wish there had been some photos but the detail was wonderful. I just felt like the point was being repeated. I particularly enjoyed when author Adam Minter inserted anecdotes of his own family experience in the scrap business. That made the story feel more personable. In fact, he probably could've written the book from that perspective and then added in some more of the facts and his reporting as a secondary point.
An interesting dive into the world of scrap dealing. Most interestingly (to me), there are nuggets of advice for the consumer and insight into where household waste goes when we "recycle" it. The personalization of the story kept me interested even though the topic can be kind of dry in some parts.
This was quite an excellent book that makes you think about what you're throwing out and recycling. The author comes from a scrapping family and spends the book spanning the globe to cover the logistics, finances, and ethics of what would usually be called trash.
informative
medium-paced
Interesting, fact filled account of the flow of recyclable goods around the world. A tad repetitive but perhaps he was merely recycling the words.