I’m extremely pleased to point readers to a new excerpt from Junkyard Planet posted today at Foreign Affairs. This particular passage, renamed ‘The Reincarnation Machine,” comes from one of my favorite chapters from the book, and concerns what amounts to the single most important device in this history of the recycling industry: the metal shredder. On paper (and on-screen), I realize that doesn’t sound so exciting. But in the presence of one – well, you’ll just have to take my word for it and then read the passage. Metal shredders are awesome – in the biblical sense – and I’ve done my best to convey that in the excerpt.

Meanwhile, over the last week I’ve been posting some images of what metal shredders look like, and what they can do, to the ongoing Scenes from a Junkyard Planet series. An even richer history of these crazy machines, and the Texans who invented them, is included in Junkyard Planet:Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade, to be published on November 12. Pre-order now!