Junkyard Planet - Adam Minter - Part 1

Junkyard Planet - Adam Minter

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 69

  March 10, 2017 

Book 22 - Junkyard Planet - Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade
by Adam Minter (2013)
 Part 1 - pages 1-304
Reading Time - 5 hours

Read this book. Now.

I picked this book off the library shelf at the library, not quite sure what it was going to be. It was fascinating... as in... "can't put it down" fascinating. Eye-opening. Sobering. Amusing. Sad. And ultimately... introspective.

Over here... we're so darn proud when our recycling bin gets picked up. "Look at all that stuff we kept out of the landfill!". That's only because most of that recycling has a market in Asia. Yup... your Tide bottle gets shipped over to China where it gets melted down into new plastic. And when plastic melts, it releases toxic gases. And there aren't really any environmental protection laws over there. The reason it gets shipped to China is because of cheap labour. They have people who are eager to work for $100/month sorting out tiny bits of metal from shredded cars. But the environmental and health impacts are HUGE!

The author of the book is the son of a scrapyard dealer. He knows the business of scrap metal... and learned a lot about how other scrap is "recycled". I learned how North America and Europe ship tonnes of scrap to Asia for a piddly amount. How Asia then turns around and breaks it apart, sorts it and sells it for $$$ to factories who make new things which are sold back to us. How we toss away broken things that aren't worth fixing - blenders, radios, TVs, computers, lawn mowers. You know... all those electronics that the recycling depots now take. Where do they go? They get shipped to Asia where cheap labour either fixes them for resale or takes them apart for all the goodies inside.

Did you know that the average North American car lives 10 years before it lands in the scrap yard? 10 years. We have become a society of consumers and disposers. It really is unsustainable. In ways, Asia is doing the world a huge service... because recycled copper and steel is much cheaper than freshly mined stuff. And if Asia weren't taking our "recyclables" we'd be drowning the stuff and it would ALL end up in the landfill. North America doesn't have the facilities or the time or money to recycle cardboard (for example).

It's crazy... but then here's the thing. The motto of a Green world is: Reduce Reuse Recycle.

But here's the thing... Recycle is the 3rd best option in there. Not the first, not the second... the third. We, however, treat it like it's the be-all and end-all. It's not.

#1 - Reduce - reduce our consumption. Do we really need the latest iPhone? Do we really need a new car? Maybe we could bring our own traveling mug to Timmies instead of using yet one more Roll-up-the-Rim-to-Win cup. We are Consumers of the Highest Order. And the Earth can't sustain our level of consumption.

#2 - ReUse- think Thrift Stores here. Maybe... instead of buying new jeans... we could get used ones at Value Village. Maybe... instead of using another roll of that metallic Christmas wrap, we could reuse some from last year? And how about reusing those Ziploc bags a few times?

#3 - Recycle - Yup. It's important. Just keep in mind that it only works as long as there is a market for what's in that bin. No market... and it all goes to the landfill.

Which got me thinking... the Cradle-to-Cradle book - or The Upcycle that I read earlier really have the jump on this. Make things so that they have an easier transition at the end of their lifetime to something else. Make it so that they are easier to take apart. Make them without toxic things in them. Make it easier to recycle them at less cost. That would be a start.

When I look at our recycle bin... I see a lot of plastic, mostly from food. Yogurt containers (big ones), peanut butter jars, soya sauce bottles. I know that buying in bigger quantities is better. So a big tub of yogurt uses less packaging than a dozen of those little individual servings.

I've also read about zero-waste grocery stores - where you can bring your own container to pick up peanut butter or whatever. It's still a movement in its infancy.

There are lots of questions and not a lot of answers sometimes. What I do know, I think, is that we have to change our habits. I will also say... again... Read this book!