05/01/2020
Rag and bone men were a feature of 19th-century urban life. They were among the poorest of the poor, earning their living by scavenging scraps of bone, rag, and metal, then sorting and reselling it. Today, the sale of secondhand merchandise is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit, operates in multiple countries and in 2014 generated $5.6 billion in revenue, most of which funded its charitable operations. Minter's (Junkyard Planet ) latest is a fascinating piece of journalism, navigating the journey of goods from the donation box to their final destinations. It also takes a look at the profitable business of assisting with downsizing, decluttering, or cleaning out the treasured possessions of departed loved ones. There is much more to the secondhand and reuse market than is commonly imagined. Daniel Henning gives a crisp narration well suited to the material. VERDICT Will engage those with an interest in business, consumer choice, or the environment, as well as those who enjoyed the author's first book.—Cynthia Jensen, Gladys Harrington Lib., Plano, TX
07/15/2019
Starting at what many people would consider the end of the story, when it’s time to dispose of possessions that are unwanted, unused, or broken, business journalist Minter (Junkyard Planet ) takes readers on a surprisingly jaunty trip through the global market for secondhand goods. Starting at a storage unit in the Minneapolis suburbs and winding up in Ghana’s Golden Jubilee Terminal, a major import crossroads, with stops in Japan, India, and Malaysia along the way, Minter introduces a colorful cast of characters, such as 41-year-old “Shoe Guy,” a (self-declared) 35-year veteran of the U.S.-Mexico trade in used goods, and Robin Ingenthron, a Vermont entrepreneur who exports computer monitors from the U.S. to the developing world. Largely a portrait of an industry in decline due to items such as clothing becoming cheaper and less durable and higher ticket electronics being developed to insure that they are difficult to repair, Minter’s book reveals an economy hampered by an increasing overabundance of supply (“The things I value, I quickly realized, generally aren’t valuable to anyone but me”). This is a fascinating, eye-opening look at a dynamic, largely unseen world that only starts when one drops off something at a thrift store. Agent: Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Associates. (Nov.)
"It’s [Minter’s] vibrant sketches of entrepreneurial characters and his dives into obscure industrial histories that make a persuasive case: discarded goods are becoming a big environmental problem." - Los Angeles Review of Books Secondhand is a gripping narrative. Minter is a superb storyteller who knows empathy is easier to connect with than numbers. In this book, there are plenty of both, but the people he interviews and the stories he tells are what make it an enthralling read . . . It's a book I'd recommend buying now instead of waiting for it to show up at your local thrift store." - NPR.org Associated Press Secondhand unravels the complexities of a vast yet mostly hidden and often secretive enterprise of used clothes and goods . . . The result is an unparalleled look at the lifespan of everyday things and the unexpected ways our society's abundance of discarded items are, refreshingly, being repurposed for a second life." - Shelf Awareness Secondhand takes readers deep inside the consumer economy’s back end. In exploring the vast global tide of used and discarded goods, Adam Minter delivers a book as crammed with oddities and gems as the second-hand shops he loves to haunt." - Nature Publishers Weekly Library Journal Booklist Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction Recycling International Science "Secondhand tells an important story about consumerism gone wild, the complex industry that has grown around its detritus, and how we can push back on an entrenched culture of disposability." - New York Journal of Books Foreign Policy The Providence Journal Sierra Christianity Today
Daniel Henning capably narrates journalist Adam Minter’s fascinating account of the industry of reuse, which examines businesses that run the gamut from local thrift stores to Japanese vintage shops to used-goods enterprises in Ghana. What happens to our unwanted, discarded, or donated stuff? What’s the next stop for that drop-off at Goodwill? As Minter pulls aside the curtain on the global secondhand industry, listeners embark on a wide-ranging adventure, learning who profits (and who doesn’t) from the afterlife of our cast-off belongings. Easy on the ear, Henning sounds interested and educational; he entertains by highlighting the material presented without calling unnecessary attention to his delivery. The result is a lively production that will stick with listeners, inviting them to consider—and maybe reconsider—their choices as consumers. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile
2019-08-28Junkyard Planet (2013), Malaysia-based Bloomberg Opinion columnist Minter looks at what happens to our discarded stuff, the used household goods and clothing donated to thrift stores or sold at garage sales.
While conducting his research, the author traveled widely in North America, Asia, and Africa to interview people involved in every aspect of the secondhand business. Because statistics on the business are scanty, Minter tells much of his story through the people he met at the many stops in his global journey. These include home cleanout businesses in Minnesota and in Japan, a swap meet in Mexico, a used clothing exporter in Canada, a sorting warehouse in Nigeria, and a Goodwill store in Arizona (in 2016, Goodwill International "generated $4.16 billion in retail sales, making it the king of an American thrift trade that generated at least $17.5 billion in revenue"). Chronicling the work of the employees at these various businesses, Minter shows readers their expertise, what special knowledge they need to have to operate successfully, what problems they face, and how the secondhand business is changing. China, for instance, used to be an importer of used clothing, but it is now an exporter. The author's respect for the people working in the business is clear, but the character-driven approach tends to lengthen the report and blur its clarity. Still, readers will come away with an understanding that the supply of secondhand goods is vast, the amount of stuff in the world is still growing, and that the secondhand business is supplying billions of people around the world with goods they want and need. The author also offers some recommendations, especially about the quality of goods, noting how the manufacture of more durable and repairable goods would have a positive effect on the secondhand business, something he notes that is beginning to happen already. The handful of black-and-white photographs, unfortunately, are generally small, murky, and unhelpful.
A character-driven, detailed, eye-opening report far richer in description than analysis.
