Adam Minter's Blog
July 13, 2016
How we think about e-waste is in need of repair.
Below, a pic I took a few weeks ago in Hauqiangbei, a commercial district in Shenzhen, China. It’s the beating heart of the global electronics industry, the world’s most important marketplace for everything electronic – phones, computers, playable piano keyboards that … Continue reading →
May 27, 2016
Making Everest Safe Makes it Unsafe.
A couple of days ago I published a Bloomberg View column on ways to reduce deaths – and crowds – on Mount Everest. The two are closely related: too many people on the summit means that climbers are spending too … Continue reading →
November 16, 2015
Recycling is dead. Long live recycling.
How do you illustrate a commodity collapse? If you’re my colleagues at Bloomberg, you take 33 different materials – metals to crops – and you create an index. Lately, it’s a downward plot. But as much as I like graphs, … Continue reading →
October 26, 2015
The Junkman is Your Green Future
Most of the talks I give touch on some aspect of my family background. But for plenty of reasons, I’ve skirted opportunities to go deeper (except in Junkyard Planet). But back in June, when I was invited to participate in … Continue reading →
October 4, 2015
Here’s what John Tierney left out of his anti-recycling screed.
Over the weekend the New York Times’ John Tierney published “The Reign of Recycling,” his attempt to show that recycling is more sentiment than it is good environmental stewardship, much less, good business. I’ll have much more to say about the … Continue reading →
August 13, 2015
The More Things Change in China – Hershey’s Chocolate Edition
The other day I was scanning headlines and came across an interesting item: earnings are suffering at Hershey’s chocolate due to a disappointing China performance. That’s not how it was supposed to work out: back in 2013 Hershey, in an expansionist mood, acquired … Continue reading →
July 26, 2015
Two Women, Two Systems – thoughts on Taiwan’s (soon to be) first female leader
When Chairman Mao famously declared that “Women hold up half the sky” in 1968, he probably didn’t expect that Taiwan – a renegade province in China’s eyes – would show up the Mainland in proving it. But that’s precisely what … Continue reading →
July 7, 2015
Who Will Protest China’s Stock Market Plunge?
Last August several hundred protestors gathered outside the Shanghai sales office of China Greentown Holdings, a real estate developer, holding banners with slogans such as “300,000 yuan worth of assets evaporate within five days — years of work in vain!” … Continue reading →
July 1, 2015
What Does Hillary Clinton Think About My Blog?
Last night the State Department released around 3000 of Hillary Clinton’s private emails to its website. To my great surprise, one short email exchange was concerning this blog (thanks to James West at Mother Jones for bringing it to my … Continue reading →
June 26, 2015
Junkyard Planet Goes to China
I’m pleased – as in thrilled – to announce that the Chinese edition of Junkyard Planet has just been published. When I started writing the book four years ago, I always had a Chinese audience in mind. Nonetheless, for all kinds of … Continue reading →
