At this scrap yard in north Columbia, it’s easy to think the piles of rusty metal and old machine parts are, well, just junk.
But these broken motors and tangled copper wire are actually one of Missouri’s biggest links to China. China may be a hot target these days for U.S. manufacturers looking for a market to sell their products, but the fastest growing American export to China last year was actually what trade experts call “waste and scrap.”