the global 3000 talked to a team of british researchers who take a more optimistic view. their wireless is not always a good plan but it's much much better than it was how. is the roof really getting better in. a global $3000.00 special report. starts august 19th on diesel. this is one of the mountains of waste left by all of us back in the 150 s. when mass production of plastic took off an annual 1500000 tonnes were produced

worldwide now it's 350000000 tons of classic that are produced in just one year plastic is everywhere and most of it is single use packaging that is discarded right away and far too often ends up in the environment planet's plastic that's what we want to look at today here are made in germany how to get our addiction to plastic under control so where to put it all the land fills a full with cycling capacity is lagging behind so why not send it abroad germany exports around a 1000000 tons of plastic waste every year but the main destination china is no longer willing to take in the rubbish so it goes to other countries that often end up dumping all burning it. plastics plastic and more plastic and the stocks are only getting higher

recycling companies in germany have been pushed to their limits in recent years. because we didn't have enough processing capacity in germany the volumes involved and the production costs were just too high for huge quantities of plastic waste our ship abroad as a result around half of the world's plastic waste used to be sent to china to be processed there in 2018 china stopped accepting as other countries have filled the gap. destinations for germany's plastic waste are now malaysia $132000.00 tons a year followed by india has around $76000.00 and then indonesia in the 3rd place at more than $64.00 sides and followed by vietnam at nearly 57000 tons. of size of mines but in malaysia the trash piles up on dumps like this they don't

recycle here at all the trash d.k. use polluting the soil and groundwater. if you have a little rummage around here you'll see a lot of it comes from germany from other european countries too and the u.s. but there's a lot from germany this is an old capri sun is on a. there's a mix of household rubbish and used packaging and. the volume is starting to overwhelm many of the importers because there aren't enough plastic recycling plants environmentalist group greenpeace discovered 45 legal and 5 illegal landfills in one malaysian region alone with garbage from more than 19 countries. the biggest export there is the us around 16 percent their plastic weights get sent abroad. japan exports more than 15 percent germany more than

12 per cent and the u.k. more than 9 per cent. recycling old plastic trash into new plastic is a complex and costly process it has to be separated cleaned and source it exports are only legal if the country they're being sent to can process them but asian countries are often found ways that's barely recyclable. the environmental and health impacts have led many countries to limit imports or ban them completely but waste still get sent there illegally cambodia recently received 83 containers with a rand 1600 tons of bands plastic waste from the u.s. and canada officially declared as recyclable materials cambodia plans to send them back. the

germany conducts regular checks to prevent these kinds of illegal exports environmental authorities here in the port of hamburg want to determine exactly what in the cargo it's not always clear cut. what can and cannot be recycled he must take p.t. bottles you see these images of them being sorted by hand made into pellets and they do things like outdoor clothing. but not all plastic waste is as pure as it should be manufacturers aren't careful enough or they just want to make some fast cash those are the criminals. done due to we know. some companies are already working on alternatives to exports in plastic a chip maker and recycling company at an environmental institute have joined forces to build a recycling ship it will anchor in 7 african countries and buy plastic waste from the collectors on lands to be recycled right there on board the vessel.

lots of people make a living from selling garbage like here in sierra leone they could make 5 times more money by selling it to the recycling ship on one condition the plastic is presorted into single varieties around 60 $4000.00 tons of plastic waste could be recycled here every year. because of the calls and of course on lot of them we need a big plant to process plastics in a profitable way and none of these countries has the means to build one that big we think we'll be able to buy our own $10000000.00 euros worth of plastic every year as if it's the middle of. it when you think it takes 10000 euros of revenue to create a full time job in these countries for saying we could create 1000 jobs in the region know your mission. building the resources to process plastic waste where

it's created could help the world to start breaking down its magnitude of this. but breaking down plastic is also part of the problem goes where plastic packaging disintegrates in the environment so the force of waves in the ocean or chemical processes like oxidation in the air it creates an additional problem the plastic actually never fully decomposes it just breaks down into smaller and smaller particles called micro plastics we want see them but at some stage they get small enough to be absorbed but animals getting into our food and even into the air we breathe have a look it's actually quite frightening. you know that you live in a world full of plastic. bits in the water you drink and even the air you breathe and the food you eat is full of tiny plastic particles.

every week you ingest up to 5 grams of micro plastics about the equivalent of a credit card. that much of that will remain in your body as yet unknown effect on your health. a 3rd of all the plastic produced goes into the packaging that you buy . if you're a german you generate an average 38 kilograms of waste from plastic packaging every year that's more than a european average of 24 kilograms and no matter where you live the richer you are the more ways to generate if you buy things online if you create even more plastic waste. chances are you'll use half of your plastic products only once and then discard them. but the plastic will stick around you and your environment for the most part not just for your lifespan but for centuries.

for many years we've been told that it's up to us to stop the flood of plastic waste reduce reuse recycle that is what we are told we should be doing but how feasible is it and is it enough reusable bottles and biodegradable bags may not be as good as we think they are our reports of took a long hard look at our own consumption of plastic and found out it's not easy being green. this is the amount of plastic waste my flat to produce in one day and one day i mean refined people but still we all know we have to reduce plastic waste but how do we actually do it. well in many meitner the mantra reduce reuse recycle but it's not that easy number one read you just refuse this plastic stores don't buy

a coffee to go buy on package easy right easier said than done even at farmers markets like this one many things are package and plastic. let's be real from things have to be packaged to be transported and sold like these berries this is small for this coffee because it will lose its aroma or. these cookies because they will crumble but those that have to be this smart and the that have to be planned that you know there are alternatives to single use plastics like these in our very stylish plates made out of probably most all these biodegradable trash bags sound also right but many of the alternatives are only nice products which makes them quite expensive. these cost me $0.50 per piece the plastic ones are much cheaper less than $0.10. so-called bioplastics only make up

less than one percent of the market and bioplastics can only be composted on the very specific conditions not in your private compost heaps and often not in industrial ones either. so plastic alternatives still have a long way to go i know nobody can avoid using trash bags entirely but trying to avoid single use plastic and packaging especially is a good start so the 2nd thing to do is really use. you know use and reuse the bag the fancy water bottle and cement all straw just getting i didn't have one this is a chopstick. there is a whole industry cropping up around these trendy reusable product leigh's can cost up to $50.00 euros but using these doesn't make you a saint because producing these fancy things also costs a lot of energy like

a cotton bag you might have to reuse a new one hundreds of times to stay below the environmental impact of a single use plastic bag so go with what you already own even if it's not the world's most stylish thing and if you really need something maybe just go buy it secondhand that way it also gets reuse number 3 recycled. ok so even hardened environmentalist can't live entirely without plastic waste i know i car but that's ok right because all plastic waste gets recycled well you know in germany these p.t. bottle they can be recycled but a lot of these plastic cards it's quite confusing the german government says we recycle less than half of our plastic some critics estimate it's less than the fish companies recycle things are that easy to recycle and make the money black plastics

for example can't be sorted by machines so they don't get recycled packages made out of a combination of plastics are also hard to recycle same goes for p.t. trees a lot of this gets burned to produce energy all get shipped overseas. so separating your trash diligently sadly doesn't automatically mean avoiding plastic waste but before anybody says what's the point of all this there are a few things that everybody can do if they want to reduce their plastic ways try to avoid single use plastics as much as they can this specially of the how to recycle stuff single use items out of other materials some like this or paper are better than plastic but some are not as environmentally friendly way claimed to be and use and reuse what you've got here even this plastic bag until it falls apart remember it takes a long time to do so. cured of that consumption is one part

of the story obviously production is another when plastic was invented it was praised as a wonder material extremely useful cheap and easy to manufacture a huge industry developed making a lot of money producing plastic packaging and bottles there are some facts and figures. slapstick is versa town it can be a lasting or hard transparent or opaque take on virtually any shape. it's an amazing material that's become indispensable in medicine electronics construction and even mobility. since the 1950 s. production has skyrocketed plastic has meant huge profits for industry because it's cheap and easily disposable except it isn't greenpeace says coca-cola pepsi and nestle are the world's largest producers of plastic trash coca-cola sells

88000000000 plastic bottles here if you lined them all up it spanned the equator 600 times. and plastic production continues to grow today industry has produced more than 8000000000 tons of plastic by 2050 that total is expected to reach 12000000000 tons. incredible numbers that we won't be able to do without plastic anytime soon but the image of the plastic producers has definitely been tarnished now it seems the industry has begun a rethink that's all well and good but is there still time to turn things around my colleague martin who spoke to an executive for sponsible for sustainability at a major german plastics manufacturer about the industry's efforts to clean up its act. the condition of we can't do without plastic almost every solar maggio every blade on a wind turbine it contains plastic stuff and. herit

german plastics manufacturer a spin off of last year's day also amounted to 14000000000 euros so business is good but the plastic sector has a waste problem and image problem. christiane has left the company's head of global sustainability is supposed to find solutions to both of them divest very recently joined forces with competitors to form an alliance to end plastic waste. is the 1st it industry's poor image a problem for you. that cover stroke we want to tackle this as part of a consortium we can't solve it on our own. alliance too and plastic waste is an industry wide attempt to solve the problem of plastic pollution. we have to ensure that plastics that are too valuable to end up in the environment can again become valuable resources for industry at the end of their life cycle. but if

they are valuable resources where they've been thrown away isn't it a bit late for this alliance founded in january 29th. well to prevent them from being discarded you have to have a functioning waste collection sorting and recovery system. and the job of the chemicals industry is to make sure there are technologies that can turn these plastics into raw materials for industry. restaurants plastics generally end up insurable. these include cars insulation for buildings and consumer goods. a major line of business is polyurethane foam used in shoes for example and mattress is. one of our 2 main product lines polycarbonate and polyurethanes. this is not easily recyclable. chemically recycled mechanically too but of course not the same

amount as we produce so we don't have a circular economy for this product yet. germany's recycling rate is below 30 percent there's some dispute over how much is that far too little. but will it when it's a local of course if we want to achieve a circular economy the target has to be 100 percent but don't underestimate the complexity of this problem we want to recover the plastics in as pure a form as possible to work through instant for the meeting of people past it recovery is another manufacturers responsibility shouldn't they use less mix plastic and incorporate more pure great plastics can still file for up on. the challenge of course the product should be constructed to be more easily recycled and separated like that's part of the whole package of measures that we need to implement his own pockets as we all know that's most an insight that's come rather

late that's already so much plastic waste in the environment and accordingly pressure on the industry as a plastic has a major image problem. yes we want to improve that image often it's all about recovering the plastics after use. that's a joint task force society policymakers and us and we will do it political view on this one will him because he went over decades it's a complex process. well what else can be done a lot on a small scale all of the world rising numbers of local initiatives to reduce plastic waste the southern german town of froebel for example has been cutting down on single use coffee cups but introducing the deposits on reusable cups to go in over $100.00 cafes they can be reused up to $400.00 times in san fernando in the philippines plastic bags. rights and the recycling rate has jumped from 12 percent

of waste to a rather astonishing 80 percent in the city of misurata in southwestern india officials are championing the cause of sending 0 waste to landfills not only that recycling waste is creating jobs there. the city of my soul is on a mission. at the break of dawn every day an army of civic workers goes all out to reclaim their city status as the cleanest city in the country. but then i got my cereal was given the cleanest city award by the government 2 years in a row and then we came 3rd in 2017 and the next year we were a. whole administration all these workers all of us are trying very hard to get back to number one on a corner with them but the more players now. for

a city traditionally committed to hygiene the swat sort of action for annual cleanliness index is a big deal. it's a survey that ranks indian cities according to their level of sanitation and the quality and scope of their facilities for waste management. we want our my student to be just as clean as the developed countries of the world . my pseudos model of cleanliness goes beyond the efficient collection of garbage. combining traditional methods of segregation with modern processing plants the city has been pushing for 0 waste to be sent to landfills. one

thing's for sure it has to be dealt with at every level right trauma many micro of a small kitchen. right up to a hotel generating way to a wedding hall or a banquet hall this is. and it in ways to industrial campus to an office area everyone has to attempt to deal with it to the maximum possible extent in them around them and only send out what they've gone deal with for cities to manage. my son who produces about $400.00 tons of waste every day 50 percent of it is treated that compost plants while a quarter is processed at recycling units. the national figures however aren't quite as impressive. india produces about $62000000.00 tons of waste every year it's one of the largest generators of waste

in the world and while 82 percent of it is collected only a quarter gets treated. most of the waste invariably ends up in landfills and open dumpsites. 2 decades ago the local government here decided to set up a 0 waste management plant in the north of my school. to combat compound waste management plant was going to set the stage for the rest of the city. we always monies went as like norway is shown both of the client online the incineration bank so we are completely money to give established that is even from our different watch of my specific operation.

as you can see we have bought 26 davis collection segregation here and we have also had this we gave out most of the public. about 40 civic workers are employed at the combine car park plant they all have the title of nagar bundles. which translates as friends of the city. developing a detailed waste segregation model has also created an opportunity for formal employment for these workers. most of them used to be part of a large network of informal rag pickers. the city corporation is now trying to bring more and more of them into the fold. stated. the help provided i don't regard as velazquez took a benefits particularly gardy yes i and. it is like a health insurance or spilled to me given by jungle me.

today to plant cells 95 percent of its recycled waste back into the city to local entrepreneurs like she's done ginny rajshekhar. recycling of plastic is done here that is we are converting plastic into our and we can use this into stationary engines so after this weekend we have bank to come up with the new projects like making it off the markets but the using another catalyst and making a profit by it is another kind of recycling. the way is does not every state is treated as a resource so we should make use of force against time though we have to convert the waste into the property. my soon may or may not receive the cleanest city award once again. but it's well on its way to achieving so much more and it's and has to build a sustainable future. so there's hope and that's it

for today from the made see tell us your ideas on how to help rid our planet of all that plastic on our facebook and twitter shop stopped watching c.n.n. stay with. us. the thing. the thing.

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in 15 minutes long t w. what secrets lie behind these memos. to find out in an immersive experience and explore the fascinating world cultural heritage sites of the of the d.w. world heritage $360.00 the fia. has to laugh. make them from people make fun about their own social economic and political problems. in mozambique we say that you have to laugh so you don't write good stuff . people call me baby girl. as a journalist i often talk about this focus and that binds me to less eloquently than. i act as fact my day by checking out all those jokes finding out what people

are talking about what is moving that. my father taught me how to ask uncomfortable questions about my country and about to book that is what i keep doing to this day my name is that he's from and i work at. some people don't care about me. because they don't see my beauty. some people don't care about me because they think i have nothing to give. but 2000000000 you can do. to them i am everything. their homes. their food. their livelihood. but day by day i disappear. and so does everything i can.

2000000000 people care about me. me me me. and now. i need a good. in russia firefighters backed by the country's air force are struggling to contain vast wildfires in siberia environmental groups say the blaze is expanded further today and have now engulfed some 45000 square kilometers. beijing has issued a stark warning to pro-democracy activists in hong kong saying they should not

mistake.