From scraps to facts. How does a kid who grew up working in his family’s scrap yard become an award-winning journalist and author of two best-selling, critically acclaimed books about recycling?

“They always say, write what you know about. It turned out I knew something about scrap!”

Adam Minter’s career trajectory is undoubtably a fascinating story in and of itself, but his reporting on global recycling is equally as intriguing. Both “Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade” and “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale” flipped the script on the discussion around recycling as Adam travels the world to uncover facts about modern day recycling.

In the first installment of our two-part episode, Adam shines a light on the complicated factors that inform our perceptions about recycling and explores the way this influences our beliefs surrounding waste and recycling. Join us on Sustainably Speaking to hear Adam discuss his global adventures in recycling and his personal mission to get the facts out. This journalist’s journey might completely change the way you think about trash.