hello. this is business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. cleaning up its act. beijing bans the import of plastic waste. we ask what impact that will have on nations that rely on china to recycle their rubbish. investors focus on the price of the black stuff in 2018, as china edges closer to opening its own market to trade in oilfutures. and on the markets, asian stocks kicked off the new year on a high, led by investors in hong kong. the hang seng saw its highest level in a decade. plenty more on that. we'll get the latest on that from singapore, coming up. the world gets back to work after the new year break, leaving behind piles of plastic, textiles and paper waste from the festive season. much of the stuff we recycle would be shipped to china, but beijing is now banning

imports of a range of waste materials in 2018. 2a different substances have been outlawed, as china tries to tackle environment damage caused by hazardous waste. each year, the world uses more than 800 million metric tons of scrap commodities to make new stuff. and china is the biggest importer of that. in 2016, the country took in 27% of global scrap imports. plastic is one of the most environmentally damaging materials, yet plastic production is expected to grow by 40% over the next decade. china's clampdown will have a major impact on recycling around the world, as danny vincent reports from hong kong. is the, this may be where plastic waste and up. —— recycling in hong kong. but recyclers must now change the way they process this waste

because of china's new ban on used plastic waste products. hong kong has been set a new challenge when it comes to dealing with plastic waste. right now, the majority of this goes to men in china but that could be set to change. but the policy change also represents an opportunity for waste recyclers. it means big business. hong kong has a relatively underdeveloped recycling sector, activists are hoping that the ban will encourage hong kong companies to do more to develop the industry. this man is the founder of community—based recycling programme. if the chinese policies work properly, i think we may see it more recycling also because they do not wa nt to recycling also because they do not want to accept the waste from other countries, they want good—quality material. the years, hong kong has

depended on china's appetite for waste products. now that many plastics are no longer welcomed, these hong kong companies will have two process the waste themselves. —— have to. with me is laure cucuron, general manager for europe terra cycle. michael gove has said that ultimately, we need to deal with the problem at home. how do we manage to eventually deal with the problem here in the uk? that is a very good question, i think that looking at other markets is a good short—term solution because obviously, you want to solve all the volume of waste thatis to solve all the volume of waste that is produced by other countries.

i think that it is a good opportunity forfinding i think that it is a good opportunity for finding new ways to recycle a nd opportunity for finding new ways to recycle and to collect, so i think in the short term, it might be challenging but i think it is probably a good start to push more innovation forward. you recyclable waste that you collect within europe, don't you? you have created your own supply chains, you are just telling me. yes, so we have worked out how to recycle everything from biscuit waste to food wrappers, to football vouchers, so we try to look at waste differently because everything is technically recycla ble, everything is technically recyclable, so it is about finding the right business model to fund recycling solution. we create our own supply chain, we work with collect this, schools, charities, individuals at home, he collect the waste products for us and then we work with other local partners to locally recyclable waste. so we really try to find new ways to recycle, everything is recyclable,

it is just about finding the right economics behind it. yeah, the issue we're going to have in this country andi we're going to have in this country and i imagine around the world is that there is not going to be that infrastructure in place in the short term to do with it. a lot of this stuff is going to have to be incinerated, which in itself is bad for the environment. of course, that is bad news, i guess. but i hope this will really, like... we will make sure that we can innovate quickly but in the short term, there will be solutions for the environment, for sure. 0k, really good to talk to you. thank you for coming in, thank you. thank you. scientists have been developing a breakthrough gene editing technique called crispr, hoping it could treat thousands of genetic diseases. but critics are worried about safety and ethics. in the latest episode from our disruptor series, we hearfrom one biotech firm at the cutting edge. it provides us the ability, we hope,

to go in, modify your dna at the point that is driving the disease and allow us to repair that dna typo, repair and fix it. this technology has the potential to revolutionise healthcare as we know it today. the speed of which we have moved

forward from a discovery in 2012 to testing animal systems in 2017, again, is unprecedented. over to asia now, where stock markets began 2018 in good cheer. let's get more from our asia business hub with mariko 0i. welcome. what is going on here? the highest market reaching ten years. yes, that is right, that is in hong kong. the rest of the region, they are mostly trading higher as well will stop basically ignoring the fall that we saw in wall street on

the final trading day 2000 and ten, and investors focusing on the us tax reform that is set to benefit big corporations. —— 2017. as you mentioned, hong kong is by far the biggest performer. this is the sixth day ina biggest performer. this is the sixth day in a row that shares are rallying and well above that psychologically important 30,000 mark and also, china is doing well thanks to strong economic data, but speaking of china, i also wanted to mention the are reports that china is edging closer to opening a domestic market to trade oil futures contracts and that means chinese buyers will be able to lock in oil prices and pay in local currency. it is not the first time that plan has surfaced but it is basically beijing's effort to try and challenge the us dollar's dominance in the world market. 0k, good to talk to you. see you later. now let's brief you on some other business stories. the spanish economy minister luis de guindos has put the cost of the catalan independence crisis at around a billion

euros, or $1.2 billion. he told spanish radio that it was due to the slowdown in the catalan economy after the unauthorised independence referendum in october. the uk's economy will slow further in 2018 as business spending stalls, interest rates rise and indebted consumers curb their spending. that's the gloomy view of more than 100 leading economists in the financial times annual predictions survey. china has long been one of the world's biggest markets for ivory, but as of 2018, all trade in ivory and ivory products in the country is now illegal. the move is being hailed as a major development in efforts to protect the world's elephant population. that story is popular on bbc.com. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning: in business insider, there's a 40% chance apple will snap up netflix, thanks to president trump's corporate tax cuts, which give the tech giant a bigger stash of cash to buy new companies. 0n bloomberg, 2018 started badly for bitcoin. for the first time since 2015,

the cryptocurrency began a new year by tumbling. last year, bitcoin soared as much as 2000% before a sharp selloff. reuters has this. star wars: the lastjedi beat jumanji over the new year weekend in the battle of the box office. lastjedi picked up more than $68 million in that weekend alone. i was one of them who went to see it. don't forget, you can let us know what you are spotting online. use the hashtag — #bbcthebriefing. at least three unhealthy snacks and drinks a day — that's how much the average child in england is consuming, say public health england. it's something they want to change, by creating a new rule of thumb

for healthier snacking "look for 100 calories snacks, two a day max". james gallagher has more. half the sugar as kids eat and drink every year come from sugary snacks and drinks. kids get to a mountain of sugary snacks and drinks each year. children eat three times more sugar than official advice, just over half of it comes from snacking between meals. it is one reason more than a quarter of children have rotten teeth by the time they turn five. this public health england campaign is warning that snacking has got out of hand and is increasing the chance of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. we are very concerned about snacking. 0ur we are very concerned about snacking. our children have unhealthy diets, they are eating too many calories. they're eating too much sugar and snacking is part of the problem. we are encouraging pa rents to the problem. we are encouraging parents to be aware of snacking and

try to cut back and replace unhealthy snacks with better snack. so how do parents feel about snacking? i know that kids like sweet spot all of the sugar and stuff that you get from shops in mcdonald's and things like that, but it is for the parents to keep an eye on them and their intake. public health england is advising snacks are limited to just health england is advising snacks are limited tojust100 health england is advising snacks are limited to just 100 calories and eaten no more than twice a day. it says for it and vegetables are ideal and crumpets are better than anything you will find in the confectionery aisles. coming up at 6am on breakfast the team will have more on the rise in uk railfares — which at an an average of 3.4% amounts to the largest increase for five years. the programme will have analysis on why its happening and reaction from passengers. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: there are new claims that many african migrants are being imprisoned, abused — and forced to work as slaves in libya.

the un has called living conditions for the majority of migrants inhumane. hundreds of stars and hollywood insiders have launched a campaign in the us to fight sexual harassment at work. the initiative — called ‘time's up' — focuses on people with low paid jobs. storm carmen has cut power to tens of thousands of homes in western france. wind speeds of up to 140 kilometres an hour battered the country's atlantic coast and is moving towards germany. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the gulf news and the current unrest in iran. the death toll in a wave of protests throughout the country has climbed as security forces clash with demonstrators. meanwhile the guardian leads on the recent spate of knife attacks in london. four young men were stabbed to death during new year's celebrations in the capital. the ft focuses on the uk economy in 2018 where according to more than 100 leading economists, britain will experience a slowdown in growth due to lack of business investment

and rising interest rates. the south china morning post investigates how the stellar performance of us markets stands in stark contrast to the political crises that continue to engulf the trump administration. and finally the quartz website looks at the downside of new year's eve celebrations saying that when it comes to nursing a hangover, you're essentially on your own. according to new scientific research the effects of alcohol depend heavily on our genetic and physical makeup. with me is dr stephanie hare who's an independent political risk analyst. welcome back. were leading with the gulf news and the death toll climbs to 12 as iran unrest worsens. these demonstrations, protest that have come out of nowhere, we think over

the price of eggs rising but they have spread, haven't they? the triggerfor this we think have spread, haven't they? the trigger for this we think is that the government unveiled a budget