Welcome

Keynote - Adam Minter, Journalist & Author

Adam Minter is the great-grandson of an immigrant scrap peddler from southern Russia. Like everyone in his family, he worked in the scrap warehouse. Unlike other members of his family, he left the business and became a writer. In 2002, he moved to Shanghai where he became the only foreign correspondent reporting regularly on China's scrap recycling industry, primarily for Scrap Magazine and Recycling International. Over the years, his work on waste and recycling has been featured in publications from the Wall Street Journal to Vice. In 2013, Adam added "author" to his resume with the publication of his critically acclaimed, best-selling first book, "Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade." His most recent book, " Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale," is a deep dive into the world of thrift stores and flea markets - and what they tell us about consumerism and the environment. The book has been featured on some of the world's most prominent media platforms, including NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Using his signature method of narrative storytelling, Adam Minter will trace his personal journey from a small family scrapyard in Minneapolis to a position documenting the global waste and recycling industry from the Asia-Pacific regions. Along the way he'll show how today's industry challenges don't predict the end of recycling. Instead, they predict the latest new beginning. In a world that sees waste and recycling as something that's dumped on others, Minter will show how a global trade of recyclers, thrift stores, and decluttering businesses is finding new value in the things that we all overlook. Come prepared to have your stereotypes and misconceptions about waste and recycling challenged and turned upside down!