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Praise for Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade

“Eye-opening… [Minter is] an excellent guide to this sprawling and bewildering trade.” —Wall Street Journal

“Superbly researched.” —Financial Times 

“A satisfying investigation-cum-travelogue.” —Mother Jones

“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 concludes that the solution is in the first word in the phrase, ‘Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.’” —Publishers Weekly

“Minter is here to tell you that there’s big money to be made in what American consumers and industries throw away. As he travels the world from Houston to Guangzhou, surveying the debris and discards that fill scrap yards and warehouses, Minter takes the reader into a world of commodities trading that is every bit as lucrative and cutthroat as anything on Wall Street. The son of a scrap man, Minter brings an insider’s knowledge and appreciation for an industry that no one thinks about, everyone contributes to, and a lucky few profit from.” —Booklist