Where America Recyles

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November 2006: Workers strip copper from imported, used, electrical motors (from washing machines to industrial equipment) at a thirty-five acre processing plant two hours south of Shanghai. China’s low-cost labor and high-demand for copper allows it to recycle motors far more completely and efficiently than can be accomplished in the developed world. This factory, likely the largest motor processor in the world, imported in excess of 12,000 shipping containers of motors in 2006, alone.

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Adam Minter is an American writer in Shanghai.

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