This one had some very valuable information. It's definitely worth reading!
To begin, I'd like to mention the (very few) negatives in the book: First, the author covers a wide area, however, he misses one of the great re-cycling activities of our time, ship breaking. I do wish that he had visited the ship breaking facility at Alang as this would have been an extremely worthwhile addition to the book. Second, he mentions "reduce, reuse, recycle," but he doesn't go into the subjects of reduce & reuse very much. Both of these are minor gripes and only take away from the book, what might have been valuable extra information. Perhaps the reduce & reuse portions of the phrase can be the genesis of another (most welcome) book (more on this below).
The author grew up in a scrap yard in Minneapolis. I am slightly familiar with some of the historical topics that he mentioned as I have lived in the Twin Cities for the past 30+ years. There are two that might be of interest to the readers of this book. The first is NIMBY. In the late '90s a scrap company wished to install a Konderator metal shredder along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. This unit is similar to the ones mentioned in the book. The screaming over the installation of this unit was legion. The second is the scourge of copper harvesting from vacant and abandoned homes. I have seen 1/2 dozen of these over the past 3 years in Minneapolis alone. With the price of copper hitting highs, it has become almost expected to find vacant homes in the seedier parts of Minneapolis to have their copper stripped. // This is not unique. In the late '60s & early '70s, the price of copper also spiked. My father brought home a knife that had been almost burned through. When asked about it, he responded, "The police were called to the bridge house of one of the bridges across the Chicago River. A resident reported seeing a man in flames running and jumping into the river. Upon investigation, the police reported that someone had attempted to strip the copper buss bars that ran the DC motors used to lift the draw bridge! All that they found was a nick in the buss bar and the nearly melted knife." //
So far as recycling goes, it's a great read on the scrap industry. It refutes the concept of "dumping" with regard to third world economies. Those folks desperately *want* the scrap. That said, the recycling is extremely unhealthy; however, it will be done as sourced from the USA, or other nations. It cannot be stopped. The author then goes into the technological changes in the recycling of cast off material (both large scale items like autos and what we call eWaste, electronics).
All in all, worth your time and money.
Additional note: The author mentioned the old mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle." Here are some things to think about:
1) Reduce: We will need to re-evaluate our economy of general convenience. It the 1950s, we had returnable milk, soda, and beer bottles. The beer bottles, last to go away, disappeared in the late '80s & early '90s. To reduce, we need to revert to an economy that can again use returnable containers.
2) Reuse (re-purpose): My favorite example of this is the old San Miguel beer bottles in the Philippines. When they get to a certain age, they no longer are used for beer. they are sold off (or diverted) to bottles of fish sauce and sold in the local stores. (And, as a last resort, are broken up into sharp shards. Then set in cement on the top of cement block walls as deterrents to cat burglars.) There are many other examples in the third world, and a smaller bunch in the USA.
3) Recycle: The theme of the book. Reduce the items to component parts and re-introduce the (newly made) raw materials back into the manufacturing stream. Plastic milk bottles to composite plastic deck boards, for example.
To this, I would like to add that we-all have also missed a bet. It should be, "Reduce, repair, reuse, and finally recycle." We seem to be using more & more items that are basically sealed units. Example: Look at tablets and cell phones. While it is advantageous to have the batteries soldered in place, it only means that the unit will be dumped when the battery dies. And, yes, I understand that a 2-year old tablet, or cell phone, is completely obsolete in today's market. But, come on folks, what about all of the other things we toss in the trash?
Finally, in the 19th century, old clothes and scrap cloth were cut up and re-sewn into bed quilts. In the 21st century, old cell phones are stripped of their chips, which are reprogrammed and put into electronic toys. All I can say is that I look back with a heavy heart to my grandmother's button box and her string drawer.
Some personal examples (just for fun): 1) My Maytag washing machine broke down (PERISH THE THOUGHT!). The (former) Maytag Repairman stated that I could quite easily do the repair myself. He sold me the replacement part (a re-circulating pump motor) and after a bit of putzing, I had it installed & the machine up and running. The motor was a sealed unit & went into the recycling bin. 2) My front deck (being 35 years old) was suffering from rotting deck boards. I removed the boards & replaced them; however, i didn't toss the old boards in the trash. I de-nailed them & tossed the nails in the recycling bin. Then I trimmed off the rotten parts. I cut them up & re-assembled them as garden benches. About 70% of the lumber was salvaged. At $0.50~$1.00/linear foot, that cedar (once 2x6, now trimmed to 2x4) was still quite valuable.
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