this is one of the mountains of waste left by all of us back in the 1950 s. when most production of plastic took off an annual 1500000 tonnes were produced worldwide now it's 360000000 tons of concepts that are produced in just

one year plastic is everywhere and most of it is single use packaging that is discarded it's right away and thoughts 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 we had to put it all the landfills a full was 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 are shipped 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 in 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 old the trash dk is 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 employees 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 there plastic waste come to brought. 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 protest 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 iran 1600 tons of bombs plastic waste from the u.s. and canada officially declared as recyclable materials cambodia plans to send them back. home in. germany conducts regular checks to prevent these kinds of illegal exports environmental authorities here in the port of hamburg want to determine exactly what's in the cargo it's not always clear cut. what can and cannot be recycled.

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. that's a done deal too we know. some companies are already working on alternatives to exports in plastic and chip maker and recycling company at an environmental institution have joined forces to build a recycling ship it will anchor in 7 african countries and by plastic waste from the collectors on land 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 pretty sort it interesting go varieties around $64000.00 tons of plastic waste could be recycled here every year. 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. a month and when you think it takes 10000 euros of revenue to create her full time job in these countries then we could create 1000 jobs in the region know your machine. building the resources to process plastic waste where it's created could help the world to start breaking down its magnitude of drop this.

but breaking down plastic is also part of the problem goes where plastic packaging disintegrates in the environment through the force of waves of 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 by animals getting into our food and even into the air we breathe have a look it's actually quite frightening. did you know that you live in a world full of plastic. it's 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 with as yet unknown effects 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 you will 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 in 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 there are 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 refines people but still we all know we have to reduce plastic waste but how do we actually do it. well i mean my dinner 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 varies because this is small or this coffee because it will lose its aroma or. these cookies because they will crumble but those that have to be this much and of that have to be a plant that you know there are alternatives to single use plastics like these now 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 heap and often not an 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 products these 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 card but that's ok right because all plastic waste gets recycled well you know in germany these p.t. volatile 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 the same goes for p.t. trays

a lot of this gets burnt 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 bestially of the hard 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 as they claim 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 their 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. plastic is versa town it can be a lasting more hard transparent more opaque take on virtually any shape. it's an amazing material that has 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 bottle so here if you lined them all up they'd spam 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 best still time to turn things around my colleague martin who spoke to an executive responsible for sustainability at a major german plastics manufacturer about the industry's efforts to clean up its act. we can't do without plastic every solar module every blade on a wind turbine that contains plastic. hair a german plastics manufacturer a spinoff of last year's say also amounted to 14000000000 euros so business is good

but the plastics 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. recently joined forces with competitors to form an alliance to end plastic waste. is the 1st industry's poor a major 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 2 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 a 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 in durable goods. these include cars insulation for buildings and consumer goods. a major line of business is polyurethane foam used in shoes for example and mattresses. 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 with a 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 for instance for the army of people past it recovery is not the manufacturers responsibility shouldn't they use less makes plastic and incorporate more pure great plastics. is a 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 the film that's. an insight that's come rather late that's already so much plastic waste in the environment and accordingly pressure on the industry. has a major image problem. yes we want to improve that image of this it's all about

recovering the plastics after use. of joint task force society policymakers and us live and we will do it political view on this one will him because you know for 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 by introducing the deposits on reusable cups to go in over 100 cafes they can be reused up to 400 times in san fernando in the philippines plastic bags. right in the recycling rate has jumped from 12 percent of waste to 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 sera who is 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 account of them but the mop we have now provided. for a city traditionally committed to hygiene the swat sort of action and he will

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 studio to be just as clean as the developed countries of the world. my pseudos model of cleanliness goes beyond 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 and i trauma many my crew

of a small kitchen. right up to a hotel generating to a wedding hall or a banquet hall this is. and it in ways to an industrial campus to an office area everyone has to attempt to deal with it to the maximum possible extent in that around them and only send out what they've gone deal with for cities to manage. my soup produces about $400.00 tons of waste every day 50 percent of it is treated at 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 in variably 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. but come back up our waste management plant was going to set the stage for the rest of the city. we always manage when there's like norway's should go to the client online pretty early infiltration so we are completely money to be still without receiving from different walks of my specific operation. as you can see that we have got 26 very nice collection segregation here and we have also had nice we gave our venice to 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. to . help reward i don't regard as velazquez took the benefits particularly gardy essay and. because like i has danger in the search field me we won by doug only. today to plunk sells 95 percent of it's recycled waste back into the city to local entrepreneurs

like she's done jenny rajshekhar. recycling of plastic is done here that is we have plastic into our we can use this into stationary engines so after this weekend 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 of. the ways does not every state is treated as a resource so we should make use of segregation and we have to do this into the proper. my subaru 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 maid see tell us your ideas on how to help rid our planet of all that plastic on our facebook and twitter shop start washing your next time stay

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global auto and mobility show every week on w. . every 2 seconds a person is forced to flee their home. the consequences come into sastra so our documentary series displaced depicts dramatic humanitarian crises from around the world to. fuck a thing we don't have time to think i didn't go to university to kill people and i think the fact that i am paying people feel for their lives and their future so they seek refuge abroad but what will become of the course stay behind and say play up little my husband went to peru because of the crisis i wonder if he hadn't gone there we would have died of hunger come out of them. displaced starts turning their 15 years on the dole.

this is d.w. news live from berlin iran fires back launching more than a dozen missiles at bases hosting u.s. troops in iraq iran says it's taking revenge for the u.s. assassination of its top general the pentagon says it will take all necessary measures to protect its troops and allies in the region we'll get a live update from baghdad.