oh, economists say they are signs of economic recovery. it's woke up and they take some time before people in communities like this. feel the benefit of that. ah, hello again. the headlines on al jazeera western countries are racing to evacuate. people from gonna start with less than a week to go until all foreign troops leave. the taliban have urged afghans to stay while saying those with permission to leave will be allowed to depart once commercial flights resume. meanwhile, the u. s. embassy and capital has asked american citizens not to travel to the airport. it's also advising those are already there to leave immediately. us secretary state and city of lincoln says about 1500 americans are awaiting evacuation from the country. alan fisher has more from washington d. c. well, there seems to have been a specific threat made against people gathering outside the airport,

particularly americans from ice ok, which is the militant groups off shoot in afghanistan. it is carried out a number of attacks across the country during this year. certainly the airport was considered to be a vulnerable target. it's something that the americans are aware of. undoubtedly during the conversations with the taliban, it's something that has come up. in fact, you remember that just on tuesday, joe biden essentially saying to the taliban, you have got to keep an eye on isis key. members of 170 indigenous groups in brazil are waiting for the supreme court to make a crystal ruling on rights to their ancestral lands. rights group appealed against the states view that tribes can only claim land if they lived there or made their claim before a law came into force 30 years ago. but indigenous people say, many of them were expelled from their lands decades before the supporters of bolivia jailed. former interim president jeanine as have been marching through the streets of the pas demanding her release. medic say, anita is in

a stable condition after she tried to take her own life. she's been charged with genocide over the death of protesters in 2019. and he has also faces charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy. a rapidly expanding bush fires threatening homes on businesses in the san bernadino. in the u. s. county of california. people living in little creek have been advised to evacuate firefighters se wins are making it difficult to contain the south fire. he was vice president of the ques, china, of bullying at southeast asian neighbors, comma harris made the comments while in vietnam harris's there, as part of a tour aimed at countering china's growing influence in the region. those are the headlines on al jazeera, more news coming up right after inside story, news, news, news.

as the war population grows, so does the waste heat produce, but some criminal gangs are taking advantage why illegally dumping trashing countries like romania. so what can government do to stop this? and then hans, proper recycling this is inside stored. ah, ah, hello, welcome to the program on, hasn't seeka illegal waste has become a huge issue for many countries around the world. this is especially the case in eastern european nations like romania and bulgaria. trash that should have been recycled or treated properly is often dumped or burned in open fields. creating

a health and environmental risk. criminal gangs have long taken advantage of this problem and facilitated the dumping of even more illegal waste. much of that trash comes from rich western european nations. some companies and governments believe the waste is being handled properly, but often it's discarded without proper treatment. and all that waste is killing natural habitats by polluting the water and air around them, while governments are forced to spend millions of dollars every year to clean it up . so what should countries do to implement proper waste management and prevent illegal dumping? we'll put that to our guests shortly, but 1st a report from andrew simmons on how romania is dealing with this issue. this site was registered as a recycling center. yet it became a mountain of waste mixed with building rubble ignored by local authorities for more than 10 years until now. take a lot of plastic. domestic waste may be

induced to other ways in that part. the new head of romania is national environment agency, octavian. but chombo knew nothing about it until sewage pipes beneath the tip collapsed a few weeks ago, flooding a suburb of bucharest, aside from the acrid stench and the colossal scale of his tip and others like it. romania now has an even bigger problem with illegal waste. go east to the black sea port of cassandra and rubbish is a criminal commodity worth millions of dollars. and a determined prosecutor here is taking on the cartels. the model for the problem of illegal waste trafficking is compatible with the drug trafficking to you don't. it's faces an overwhelming challenge, but he did smash warner daisha plan to import a shipment of toxic waste from italy, so called business men were involved and they attempted to bribe local officials,

whales from other european consignments, like these sho, recycling centers as destinations. but instead they go to basic consideration sites all landfill dumps, pollution on a big scale. this is part of one consignment from the u. k. host of cop 26, the u. n. global warming summit due in november, needs to says the u. k is incorporating enough on getting prosecutions. i was to have a more collaboration of, of, from the partner for british authorities were fighting against the crimes. and then the crimes regarding not romania and not going to beat them. in my opinion. it's a huge problem for all the plot it october on, but sean, who says his investigation team is poorly paid and it faces intimidation from criminals, exposing your family, your life. it's a problem to be put on the mound. but child who stay besides symbolizes

a different era of waste crime. you know, dwarf by matthew cartels, bribery, corruption here and overseas. and there's pollution never seen before, coupled with inaction and apparent indifference in other european states. andrew simmons, al jazeera, bucharest, ah, let's bring our guests now. in sydney we have edward cozier environmental entrepreneur and managing director of next tech, recycling consultancy in brussels. we have phone fin stained forth policy analyst at the institute for european environmental policy. and joining us in beirut, the ad founder of cedar environmental and environmental, industrial and engineering, organization, a warm welcome to all of you, thought fin, staying for the fact to start with. you just give us

a sense of the scale of a problem. and now how bad is it gone in the last few years young in the, in recent years, this problem has gotten much worse. partially because of the increasing volume of waste that's available. and so, because there's been changes in, in many countries have decided not to accept waste shipments like they used to. and that is really highlighted the degree to which many countries have been relying on simply shipping their waste abroad. i think many people are not aware of the degree to which that is happening. many people think maybe that there is a very good recycling policies in place, but in fact, a lot of waste has still been simply shipped abroad. and eh, because you know what's, what's the environmental and health impact of all of all this? well, when materials are shipped abroad, they don't always go to the countries that have adequate waste management

facilities. the materials that are shipped typically are mixtures of both recyclable and non recyclable materials. and very often that isn't thoroughly checked. now, when that happens in the country where it's being finally, sorta the, the good and valuable materials will be extracted and the non valuable ones will then be discarded or buried or burnt. and this of course has negative impacts. if they're not properly treated, then they could be released into the environment and damage the surroundings for, for animals and see life. and we're likely not everyone's very familiar about the volume of plastics that eventually released by rivers in the oceans. in many parts of the world. so those scenarios happen where we don't have adequate waste management provisions to make sure these materials are properly looked after. after sorting the check, i know in the news a while back lebanon was having a lot of problems with, with,

with their whole garbage collection. just give us a sense of your perspective on this and why this is such a huge problem. well, you know, like i said, this is still on check on regulated it. all of the advanced countries have shipped deadweight to 3rd world countries where there is not the proper infrastructure. we are at least another non we are lucky is that we did not. we have very stringent regulations on accepting incoming waste from other countries, but we have, we have a lot of problems dealing with our own as well. like you said, there is also, there is also an economic aspect to plastics. recycling. no one wants to foot the bill of recycling this material. this material can, can be used and reuse and the purpose, but someone needs to subsidize the cost of that. so it's not an issue. let's

try to use less plastic. it's about where it is in, in, in the chain and make making and reusing it. that is what you're saying. well, i mean, you know, i'm not sure if the other gets agree with me as well. and he's talking plastic has done, has made a huge leap. so technically speaking, weekend practically recycle all kinds of plastics. technically, i'm saying now it's all about the economics with the governments want to subsidize such a, such an endeavor or not. eventually they will need to thorn from the same for we we just, we saw in the, in the report from romania about how they said there are, there are criminal gangs that are controlling a lot of this, the waste collection and the processing of it, which is part of what makes it so challenging, but that's, that's

a phenomenon you see all over the world. don't you? what, why, what is it about? about the rubbish collection business that attracts, seems to attract criminal elements? is it also because it's kind of a research recession proof business, there's always money to be made. people always need that their rubbish collected well, exactly. it's a resilient business for, for criminal elements to to make money. it's always needed there. it's a good money laundering vehicle as well in some cases, and it's an area that is very often under enforced. it's very hard to keep track of, of all of the rubbish that's being shipped around the world. and that's available. as we all know, there is a constant stream available and we see that, for example, in the u, the the enforcement of the rules that do exist are quite inconsistent. and that's one of the reasons for example, and romania is a,

is an area that has seen a lot of activity in this area that the, the enforcement there is particularly bad, but it's not good across the u. and the european commission has recently proposed that the, the enforcement mechanisms and the coordination within the you needs to be improved . yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that than edward cozier. what do you think needs to be done to, to stop this? well, there's a big opportunity to actually stop the export of, of packaging materials like plastics for example, while the country, primarily what happens in countries that are well developed with the collection systems is that they can collect them efficiently. they do some preliminary sorting . and then the next decision is, did these materials was recycled inside the country, or are they exported? the statistics for collection, i usually counted as the,

the statistic for recycling. but what happens in the next step is really quite important. now when the materials are released to another country, they're not always properly recycled, as, as we've just mentioned and just heard. but all of these materials actually have a value if they're recycled in the country where they're generated, typically that will create more employment. yes, it's expensive to recycle these materials because you have to have machine injury and labor, an energy to do the wireless. however, at the very end you're, you recreate the materials. those materials will replace virgin plastics. and so they actually have a big benefit to the environment because it lessens what we need at the other end in terms of oil conversion into, into new material. so there's a big carbon footprint benefit from recycling, especially in the countries that where the generator and the other big benefit of this is if companies generate plastics that are difficult to recycle,

it becomes immediately obvious in that market. and that means the recycle is, can feed back to the, the retailers and the manufacturers about the lack of recycler billeting. and so all of a sudden you've got a mechanism to repair the design process so that the packaging that is made is recyclable. and then go through multiple loops many times with benefits to everyone . so the prime benefit there is to act or mechanism is to restrict the outlet, all of recycled materials are the countries now this is already happening, but obviously the mac can ism has weaknesses in it. and that's why we end up with examples like the one you've portfolio. but there are some simple ways of doing it . and, and i think everyone's got this in a targets. the matter is, i think the big question is, how do you, how do you make the system function more efficiently that the deb check what,

what point in the chain can, can something we don't to stop this? i mean, you, you mentioned how lebanon has very tough laws, against collecting waste from, from outside the country. so that's, that's one area where you can tough some things up. but where else is the best place to tackle the problem? you know, i think, you know, we should, you know, the un, we should, or country should agree that it's basic decency that you do not ship your waste on to other people's countries. this is as basic as that. once, once you forbid the export of any plastic waste material then and then you copper that with some local local programs, project subsidies to encourage local recycling. like the gentleman said, you know, this creates jobs, economic activity. you have, you know,

plastic it doesn't stick with the or this is, this is a image either that last 4 or 500 years. you can rework it and work it and you work it again and again. and again. you can make a furniture with it. we're making vertical forms structured with it. it's a very versatile medina to work with shipping it to other people's countries where they left the infrastructure. it should be, it should be a crime. so often staples, what you, i mean you talked earlier about how the, there's a lack of mechanisms to, to really tackle the problem in certain countries like romania, for example. and we heard in the report how law enforcement agencies are really up against it. dealing with these, these organized crime groups. so what, what can not just law enforcement agencies, but governments in these countries,

how do you strengthen their ability to deal with this problem? well, i think that there's 2 sides. i mean there's the, the enforcement of the law to prevent illegal waste dumping and shipments. but then we need to look as we've just heard at the other side of the equation. i think that's where really the focus needs to be. and where we've only just really started to explore the options in terms of making a circular economy that moves away from linear model of, of dumping our waste as cheaply as possible and to reusing the materials as we've just heard. it's technically quite feasible to, to, to reuse and, and to reuse the materials from plastic and all kinds of other products. in some cases, it can be more expensive immediately, but in the longer term it, this isn't the case and, and should make for

a more holistic economy where people are employed locally. for example, repairing items. one of the mechanisms that the us looking at is a right to repair, where people will have the right to have their products such as mobile phones and, and laptops which are often discarded very quickly repaired. there will be also looking at, for example, requirements to include a higher level of recycled content in products which often are very low at the moment and funding research and development to improve recycling techniques. so those are some very concrete mechanisms that can be used and, and are being rolled out now. certainly in the you and in some other countries around the world. ed, because you know, we mentioned earlier in this, i think about how rich countries seem to have the better equipped to deal with this because they have the, the infrastructure,

the technical infrastructure and you know, better better law enforcement and so on. is the onus on them more to, to, to, to look at this at the, at the global level to, to, to, to try and, you know, improve the situation for the poor countries as well because they're part of the problem. okay. you'd have to say yes, because 1st of all, the countries that are more economically wealthy are the ones who have high consumption rates, all packaging materials in plastic. so typically they're going to generate more material. sadly, the world and recycled. 15 percent of all the plastics. it makes but 40 percent is going into packaging, short term applications. 60 percent goes into long term product. so at least at 40 percent that's fast moving. should be recycled and probably we're only at the rate of recycling of 30 percent. what happens the other 70 percent?

well, it ends up either going into landfill, a waste to energy. now, could we do more in this area? i think those countries that are high generators of plastics have a greater responsibility. now you could ask the question, does romania have plastic waste? well, of course it has. it's got probably 80000000 people. it's generating waste. but it's bringing him in material from europe or wealthier countries because it's, it's part of europe. it can, it can buy these materials because there's a mechanism that allows this to happen. so they buying materials from your europe, or from germany on australia or, or france or spine, and they're coming in for processing. now ideally those materials should be process where they were not one of the mechanisms to do that is what's happening in the united kingdom, where they're applying a $200.00 pound per ton tax on packaging that does not have 30 percent,

the cycle content. now what we've seen was the announcement of this tax, which is coming into play in april 2022 is that many companies are now investing in recycling. brand owners are specifying this material they're looking to put it into their packaging. so all of a sudden there's a big local demand for recycled material. so if every country put on a text on mit on packaging that did not have 30 percent recycle content. well then all of a sudden local recycling would start to be boosted. i think we're starting to transform economies in many countries with mechanisms like this. so companies will go a long way to avoid the taxation. and so as i'll actually invest and create a new business with materials that are locally available. so indeed, the wildly wealthier countries can lead that can also actually sprayed the same sort of pattern. so all countries so that all of them do something about the waste

and as a, as a plan, as we know we're living at the right of the spray planets. so the sucker economy is way to hold that in to the use fewer resources, create fuel carbon emissions and actually have a more sustainable planet for the future. and i think this is really way the waste industry can play a very major role. of course the, the government and the retail tech has to play their part so that we don't live this linear model of making and discarding. so, recycling is really a part of the future. it's a part of the way of paving a better, a better path to more sustainable planet. so, some very good opportunities ahead if we actually implement this in the correct way . we're speaking of opportunities is the objective how. how important is to try and raise public awareness about this problem because it does seem to be something that you don't hear about that often. i mean, i was, for example,

surprise to read in the situation with, with plastic that you mentioned earlier that you know, using less plastic and banding plastic is not really the long term solution. it's about where, where, you know, where the plastic isn't in the chain. so to speak. so how, how important is it to, to, to try and educate people about that. but it's very, it's very important the banding, the plastic is a bit counter intuitive at this point. you know, this is a, a very well established material. it's going to cost a lot of research and development and processing to come up with an alternative. it would be much cheaper, like we said, if you impose a tax on non properly sorted ways or non properly recycled ways. and then also you take that tax and you create incentive programs with that money to, to entice new businesses to go. and you say, you know, we got to pay

a subsidy of $50.00 pounds. that's a 3rd done of your low density for the abilene pallets. this is, this is the outcome of recycling plastic bags. once you, once you put that into the equation, once you have that station and incentives, things would start rolling. and to do that, you will need to have the public pressure on board. it's the public. we're going to post decision makers. we're going to pressure decision makers that they need to clean up that act. we should not forget that most decision makers in most countries are also under pressure from lobbies, from from business lobby from industrial lobbies from the plastic lobby. not to tax plastic with this, but this has, this has brought us here. this has brought us to this state of affairs and this needs to be changed. and the only way to change it is to have as much of the

population on board as possible to source and stay for. what do you think is can be done to, to, to raise more public awareness about this? well, i think that in general, public awareness is increasing in general the moment because of the awareness of climate change, for example, which of course is impacted as well by, by waste a lot of climate emissions that are produced in the production of our products. and in the extraction of the resources we need for them. so if we can reduce the amount of, of material that we use and they increase their circularity of our products, the better. and for that reason, i think that this is an issue that we're very much in public. i also we see marine pollution, for example, is something that resonates with the public. so i think in a way that the public awareness is it is there now,

but what it needed now is for governments to really take action and to put in part in place the mandatory frameworks on under tools that we've been discussing today to push forward these policies and on that we're going to have to leave it. thank you to all 3 of you. edward cozier thornton stained force and he had to thanks so much for being with us. thank you and thank you to for watching. remember, you can see this program again any time by visiting our website just to dot com and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash a j inside stored. you can also join the conversation on twitter handle. there is as a inside story for me as a speaker and the entire team here in the i from the me news

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with. ready this is out there. i'm getting and gay though, with a check on your world headlines, western countries are racing to evacuate. people from going to start with less than a week to go until all foreign troops leave the u. s. embassy and capital has asked the american citizens not to travel to the airport. it's advising those are ready there to leave immediately. alan fisher has more from washington d. c. well, there seems to have been a specific threat made against people gathering. i'd say the airport, particularly americans from iso k which is.