♪ because we're told that boosts the economy. and not just in industrial countries. the middle classeses of emergig economies are also the constant target of seductive advertising campaigns. there's too much of everything, including information. but how do we deal with it? and what happens with all the stuff we no longer want? most countries have a trash problem. only a few really recycle. rubbish pileled high in the

streets of beirut after lebanon's largest waste dump closed in 2015. it was already groaning under 15 million tons of excess trash. thousands took to the streets to protest against the situation. has anything changed since then? reporter: the beacs s in the lelebane capititaleirut cocod be bebeautiful. but the realality is they'y're n half buried under garbag so tse y youngeople e ar getting ready to transform their local beach. they're taking part in a campaign called run and clean. it's the brainchild of eddy bitar and his ngo live love beirut. the group spends part of the time jogging and the rest picking up litter. the events draw up to 200 people. many young people in particular are fed up of waiting for the lebanese government to take the initiative.

eddy: this is part of the outcome of the crisis that we had a few years ago. we see that people are more and more concerned with all the problems facing the environment in lebanon. and we are very happy to see that all the people, young people, families, youth, are all coming all together in order to remove all the trash. reporter: much of the rubbish that the group picks up was not dropped on the beach, but washed up by the sea. that's because beirut's two largest garbage dumps are located right next to the water. the team spirit is clearly evident as young people from beirut's muslim and christian communities come together in a rare joint project. > there is a lot of pollutin in lebanon. so we could do anything, just so we can help. >> the localal authorities are absent when it comes to waste management. and i think we should put it on record that while we were running to clean this part of

the beach, the coast, we saw the mayor walking in the opposite direction. and we asked him to come help and lead by example, and he said he was too busy. reporter: three years ago, local residents forced the closure of what was then the main local dump. garbage was left to mount up in the streets of beirut, as garbage collection services were simply suspended. najat saliba heads up the nature conservation center at the american university of beirut. she says the g gernment lelethe crisis h happen, despite repead warnings. dr. saliba: it will hahappen again. because we don't see from the government any plan to implement a sound waste management solution. so it will happen in some cities, but in some otother cits where positive change has been already implemented,d, it will t hahappen. repoporter: these days, garbre collection is once again working normally in beirut.

but the trash is simply taken to a new dump. sometimes it g goes to an incinerarator, but that polluts the air. recycling contaiainers like the are not yet widespread. these e ones were provideded byd abi chaker's company. he says since the garbage crisis, more people are keen to see recycling introduced. ziad: peopople have really embraced it and they're asking us for more and more locations. but the problem we have is that sometimes people leave t tir bags outside the bins. they don't putut their stuff i. and if you keep bags out, other people just bring in unsorted garbage bags and they willll ple it n near those bags. and then soon enough it degenerates into a mini landfill. reporter: in addition to the recycling waste, his company also sorts through 20 tons of household garbage each day. he's employed 23 syrian refugees to do the work, giving them proper contracts and the local minimum wage, equivalent to some

$500 u.s. a month. the company collects metal, textiles, paper, and huge amounts of plastic. ziad abi chaker opened the facility in the middle of the garbage crisis, taking out a loan o of more than $700,000 u. the garbage processed here gets 100% recycled. organic waste, which makes up a high percentage of garbage in lebanon, is turned into compost. ziad: the problem was before the crisis is that all this waste would go to a landfill. when the crisis happened, this was the instigation to build a facility like this one where you have sorting and composting, and where nothing goes to the landfill or the incinerator. reporter: but that's not all. on the roof of this refugee centre in beirut, he's putting some of the recycled waste to good use. ziad abi chaker's company mamas

what he calls ecoboards out of plastic waste. they're used to create raised beds for vertical gardening. the beds are filled with compost generated from the organic waste. the rooftop offers over 100 square meters of space on whwhh to grow vegetables. there are 3000 plants here in all. a group of women at the refugee home have set up a catering service using the vegetables. it's their own company. wafaa: i'm working in that kitchen. so, i have the big chance to go outside my home, have good friends, and income for my family. rereporter: meanwhile, eddy bir from the beach clean-up campaign is pursuing new solutions for beirut's waste disposal. a mobile phone app allows residents to have paper and plastic waste collected from their homes. his drivers deposit the waste in

the garage, ready for a partner company to collect and recycle it. they're now getting between 60 and 100 orders a day. eddy: we do believe that there's room to grow and that people want more of those serviceces because it's helping them in their daily life. reporter: in just six months, 15,000 people have downloaded eddy bitar's app, and 5000 households are now using his service regularly. host: half of all clothes also find their way into the trash. most within a year, many of them unworn. every second, the equivalent of a truckload of textiles arrives at a trash depot or is burned, making $500 billion u.s. worth of wasted goods a year. the clothing industry is also environmentally damaging. every year, over half a million

tons of textile microfibers end up in the oceans, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. greenpeace says that between 2000 and 2014, worldwide clothing proroduction doubled. it's now around 100 billion items of new clothing each year. in germany, consumers buy an average of 60 such items annually and wear them just half as long as they did 15 years ago. reporter: sven steinmann from the german clothing foundation is a patient man. and he doesn't mind his job, unpacking boxes of discarded clothing and blankets in the city of helmstedt. but over the past five years he's noticed a change. people now throw in all kinds of items that simply don't belong here. sven: a construction site warning lamp.

reporter: clothes banks are increasingly being used as garbage containers. perhaps a case of people not only having too many clothes, but too much of everything. so how has this happened? the cotton fields haveve traditionally been a key factor in the production and pricing of quality clothing. global cotton production is on the rise, climbing 14% last year alone. nevertheless, the proportion of textiles containing cotton has dropped. that's because of the growing overproduction of clclothing ad other textiles worldwide. cotttton is gradualllly beig displaced by synththetic fiber, with the chemical industry eager to expand its share of the supply chain. as a quick glance around shopping zones in germany confirms, synthetic clothing is all the rage. in addition to the low prices, it can cater to different requirements, being comfortable,

durable, and breathable. an umbrella organization for clothing collectors in germany is alarmed by the trend towards more and cheaper textiles. thomas: every year in germany one million tons of textxtiles e thrownwn away. that's the equivalent of a queue of trucks covering 1000 kilometers. it's unrealistic to expect all that material to be used for people in need. we calculate that less than 10% is actually given to local charitable initiatives. reporter: as for other 90%, that's passed on to sosorting companies,s, which laterer selt on the world market. the price those companies pay has fallen in recent years to 300 euros per ton. five years ago they were paying 400 per ton. back then, the surplus of used clothes was not as excessive. and the quality was better, too. thomas: the proportion of

poorer-quality textiles, those which are no longer wearable, is rising. and the problem, especially with these low-quality items, is that they're often only partially recyclable, if at all. reporter: if you believe the advertisers,s, people who o wat look gd dodon a new outftfit evy day. wardrdrobes in manyny wesn countries are rsting at e seams because clothes are chea or rather,r, in market spepeak,d value for r money. and d compliancucustomers lyly takeke the bait. the profitits of primarkrk, h&md other global retail chains are rising sharply. as are their sha prices. and customers are wearing clothes for ever-shorter periods of time. it's a classic consumerist cycle. sven steinmann from the german clothing foundation has reached the next collection point. this makes the one with the building site beacon look pretty orderly.

so what's his impression of this container? sven: not so nice. i guess we're a throw-away society, sadly. something smells a bit rancid here. reporter: what does he mean by rancid? sven: it stinks, like someone's thrown away their rubbish in here. reporter: what was his most extreme experience so far? sven: rotting food, with maggots. i've seen it all. reporter: but poor hygiene is not the only problem facing the clothes collecting organizations. the materials have become noticeably thinner. parcel donations help to compensate for the declining quality. people who send donations by post to the german clothing

foundation tend to wash the garments beforehand. they seem to give more consideration to those in need. nonetheless, it's becoming increasingly expensive to ensure the requisite quality when it comes to the bales of compressed clothes that eventually go for sale on the world market. ulrich: we have to sort through a huge amount, just to get thee 4% or 5% of goodod quality ite. around 80%0% we can n only selo industry for use as filler material, and use the income to finance relief aid projects.s. repoporter: but itit's a systemm undeder threat. african markrkets, which f for dedecas have p pvided nenehomes to germaman castoffs, , are becg morere selective.. uganda, for example, imamaking effoforts boostst i own small-scscale textile e indus. that's onene reason why y te economic area the east afranan commmmunitwants s toalt impopos

of seconond-hand cloththes stag nextxt yea it's's a move thatat many sais lo oveverduebut nonot eryone's's applauding. aftealall, manconsnsumerin countries s like uganda a do bet from a access to usesed europn clclothes. thomas: for a lot of people, second-hand is the best option for getting quality clothes. second-hand items are often cheap and good. plus, trading themem can also provide people with an income. reporter: back in germany, the ood of discarded cloththes is noset t to stop any time soon. so german clothing recycler so-ex is working with many of the major highstreet retairs that now take back used clothing. this meaeans the storeres can m their busisinesses are m moe sustaible.e. and in thehe best case s scena, companieies like renewew celln swededen recycle t the cloth ad turn t them into a form of

synthetic cotton. and the consumers? they get vouchers in return for their r old clothes to put towas yeyemore newewurchasesromm ththeir vorite sres. host: information overload -- that's something people complained about dururg the renaissance. back then of course, only scholalars had accesess to alle knowledge mpiled in manuscripts and d books. now, thanks to the internet, a flood of digitized information has become part of daily life. whether they're students, tradespeople, children, or researchers, more than half of people worldwide use the internet. reporter: 400 hours of youtube vivideo material are uploaded every minute.. 103 million spam emails land in

our mailboxes every daday. 500 million twee a are posd toto twititter per day.y. thatat's 6000 tweeeets perecon. it's more than any one person could process in a lifetime. a constant bombardment of stories, images, and marketing can overwhelm us, leading to information overload. but what accounts for this glut? with n informati being produced at such a rapid rate, eveveryone feels pressured to produce new content just to keep up. newspapers updpdate their onlie sites throughout the day. and audiences, too, have gone global. anyone can make a video and upload it. and the number onews and mia rtals contues to ris too much information, too many choices. many respond in one of two ways. we can become overstimulated,

addicteded to the e constant flf information and new input. our stress levels rise, and we worry we might overlook someing interesting or importrtant. others go numb, lolose interestn the informatn,n, and scumbmb to ththe colorful f flow of imag. jan: when we're stressed we become forgetful and lose focus. what i find worrying is the polarizing effect, where we see everything as black and white. we're quicker to p perceive a situation as threatening. when we're overwhelmed, we're more likely to go on the attack. reporter: psychiatrist jan kalbitzer conducts research at the center for internet and mental health at the charite university hospital in berlin. jan: people have a need for information. bubut this glut, the way the mea is always blarining the alarm, makes us afraid, even of the real world.

we live in a virtutual realit. we might be walking through a safe city, but the constant flood of scary headlines makes us afraid. reporter: we're pummeled with opinions, clclaims, and counteterclaimims. it can become difficult t to distinguh between al n news and fake. and there's little to help make sense of the chaos. search engines don't necesessary give us the best results, but the results promoted by paid advertisers. jan: it's a big problem when the internet is entirely controlled by money. that has to stop. as a society, we need to step in, both politically and as individuals. reporter: the internet affects our brain, maybe even rewiring it. some studies have shown that constant mululti-tasking o onr computers s and devices overtas our pre-frontal cortex. another study has shown that the area of the brain responsible for thummomovement is s largern peopople who use a a smartpho.

so we can't just say the internet is dumbing us down. jan: when humans began using their opposable thumbs and using tools, it changed their brain structure. we began walking more uprighgh, so that wewe could better r usr hahands. our brain always has to adapt to new conditions. it would be terrible if it couldn't. reporter: so h how do we adapto this new reality? some radically limit their exposure. others try to approach the online information glut in healthier ways. but there's no getting around it -- nowadays, everyone needs media literacy. host: more than 821 million people on our planet suffer from starvation. one in nine of us s doesn't hae enough to eat. and yet, a third of food worldwide is wasted. north america, australia, and new zealand top the list of food wasters.

in second place, europe. meanwhile, in sub-saharan africa, generally, very little food is wasted. but south africa is a clear exception. reporter: tatjana von bormann pays regular visits to the garbage dumps around cape town. she has studied the wasteful lifestyle of many south africans and says change is urgently needed. every year, ththe visserhok landfill alonene receives thousasands of tons of food was. it comes from restaurants, factories, and local farms. tatjana: we estimate that a third of food is dumped in south africa every year. this has significant ecological impacts becaususe all that fod has compounded water and energy, and from a climate change perspective, in the landfill it emits harmful greenhnhouse gas, both methane and carbon dioxide.

in south africa, up to 12 million people don't know where their next meal is coming from, and yet we're wasting 10 million tons of food every year. reporter: rudolf roscher has spent years looking at ways of reducing food waste here in the western cape. he works for the regional department of agriculture. von bormann has come to visit one of his projects, which she believes could provide a model for the rest of the country. roscher has managed to persuade farmers to donate their food surplus instead of plowing it back into the ground. lizette kloppers' farm is the collection point. seven local farmers bring their excess produce here. lizette: you should see the quality.

anything, even if there is a little mark on it, or a spot or something. nono, that's not good d enough. they want to deliver the best. so, yes, they want to give. reporter: sometimes, several tons of food arrive here in a single day. government-sponsored vehicles then transport it to soup kitchens in nearby townships like avian park, which is home to 20,000 people. poverty is rife here, as are gang violence and drug crime, and it's often the children who suffer most. lenana: today we're cooking a dh with pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. then we'll serve it with rice. ththat's what we're giving the children today. reporter: by the time the soup kitchen opens, crowds of children are already waiting. it feeds 150 of them a day, serving nearly 3000 meals a month. if it weren't for the soup kikitchen, those children wouldo

hungry. the centre only caters for children, many of whom are undernourished. most people in the township live from state benefits. the soup kitchens may be a life-saver for some, but they're still not the ideal solution, long-term. tatjana: food handouts are not going to put us on a sustainable trajectory. we need to look at the whole system and we need to look at levers for change to tip the system into a positive state. atat wwf, we're looking at the issue of farming both on a commercial level, how better farming practices can be implemented, but also for smallholder farmers so that they are boboth environmentally and econonomically sustainable. reporter: another example in avian park shows just what smallholder farming can do. a few years ago, some of the residents teamed up with the department of agriculture to

begin growing their own food. the township now has 45 food gardens, where members plant fresh vegetables for the local community. those in need cacan come and collect them for free. the garden project has been running since 2015. instead of getting paid, the members get a share of the harvest. rudolf: we initially started in avian park as s the western cae department of agriculture to create food gardens in avian park community with the purpose to learn t the community to mae their own food, produce their own vegetables, but we soon realized that it w will not be enough to address the food security problem in avian park. and therefore we supplplementd the food with donations that we get from the food surplus project that we're doing with the commercial farmers in the area. reporter: major food retailers are now joining the initiative, too. instead of disposing of food that has passed its sell-by date, the retail chain

woolworths donates it to charitable organizations that work with the poor. all the food is still within the use-by date. and to ensure it remains refrigerated at all times, woolworths issues it directly from the shop's cold storage room. tatjana:a: that has given me grt hope for the future that we will no longer have the absurd situation of wasting a third of food and all the environmental and climate impacts that go along with that and actually work together through the value chain to ensure that all edible food is eaten and ideally reaches those who need it most. reporter: today, the unsold food is going to a homeless shelter in cape town. it's a practice that could work for the whole of south africa. in a country where 12 million people regularly go hungry, at least a part of the surplus food

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01/04/19 01/04/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> so we're just saying, let's make it easy for you. do what you have already done. open up government. does anybody have any doubt that we are not doing a wall? amy: as the first and now second ever female house speaker nancy pelosi dabbles in the most diverse congress in u.s. history, refusing to fund