Massachusetts DEP held a second Reuse & Reduce Workshop online this month. Dozens of state and local and institutional recycling officials were invited to watch a 40 minute presentation by Adam Minter, author of Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.
The 45 minute presentation is now posted online, no charge. It's one of his best, thanks in large part to Star Wars references* on repair in other galaxies. But it's special to me for his nods to Chendiba Enterprises, Good Point Recycling, and WR3A.
Adam starts out by telling the truth about Guiyu, China (predicted here in our 2008 ("Big Secret Factories"), 2009 and 2010 critique of CBS 60 Minutes "Wasteland"), and 2011 blog tipping the hat to TechTravels (which showed the chip reuse I was shown in 2005's trip to Asia with Craig Lorch).
He ends by telling the truth about Accra's slum and scrapyard, Abogbloshie, in Ghana. And the third party interviews and experts he relies on are Chinese and African. And the math adds up, it does not completely fail prima facia the way Greenpeace and BAN.org's "80%" math did.
Adam Minter's photo of technician repairing a screen in an Accra importers repair shop. #righttorepair
Watch the 40 minute presentation, and you don't need many more of my past blogs, too many of which are like paying your way into a Logical Escape Room.Adam leaves the listener with haunting questions about why Western Reporters fell for a story that was so false, so easily disproved with background checks, and so harmful to the best and brightest people in the developing world.
Adam Minter is already known in the industry, without a doubt, as one of the reporters to really pay back his dues. He credits this blog for our standing up for the "geeks of color" (as I coined it 15 years ago) who are too often denied agency in their purchasing decisions by a concensus between well-meaning and ill-intended waste colonialists (Adam's coined term). He and I met through this blog in 2010, and its great to see a positive message about African and Asian Tech Sector workers ooze forward, like a slowly light saber.
Listen to the end, and when asked about one single thing Massachusetts can do to make a difference, Adam says to pass the Right To Repair.
And for any really old school recyclers out there, you may even hear echoes in the presentation of my last work product for Massachusetts DEP (with EPA funding), 1999's Electronics Re-use and Recycling Infrastructure Development in Massachusetts. Listen harder, and 1992's "Value Added by Recycling Industries in Massachusetts" - which was an economic argument that retaining value added to materials creates more jobs - has a heartbeat.
15 minutes of fame is running low.
*((who knows if it was influenced by this 2011 blog, or I'm just flattering myself in a pile on)). Smoke 'em while you got 'em.
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