Adam Minter was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a family of scrap dealers. His quiet Midwestern life changed in 2002, when he began a series of groundbreaking investigative pieces on China's emerging recycling industries for Scrap Magazine and, later, Recycling International that were recognized, in 2004, with the first Stephen Barr Award for individual excellence in business feature writing. Since then, he has been cited, quoted, and interviewed on recycling and waste by a range of international media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Guardian, and National Public Radio. He regularly speaks to groups about the global waste and recycling trade including, in 2008, an invited address at the Royal Geographic Society, London.Adam is currently the Shanghai correspondent for Bloomberg World View. He and his wife divide their time between Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and the western suburbs of Minneapolis.