>> welcome to global 3000! stacks of cash what's with the global trade in recycling? tricky business how one entrepreneur in peru keeps on trucking despite the crisis scant wages in sri lanka people are struggling to cope with exploding prices. anyone wanting to buy fuel or food in sri lanka needs a lot

of time - and money. the country is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 - more than a third of the population is coping with food insecurity. the coronavirus pandemic and the global consequences of russia's war on ukraine have made the situation worse. but the biggest problems are home-grown. poor governmental decisions have increased the national debt and caused foreign currency reserves to dwindle - pushing the country to the brink of insolvency. together with un-tv, we met people there, who, are nonetheless trying hard not to lose hope. >> we work even when it rains and while the leeches suck our blood. we only eat vegetables and greens. we are going through a very

hard time.” >> nagamma has been picking tea here for 23 years; she's one of millions of sri lankans in the grip of the country's worst cost of living crisis in generations. from the brand new lotus tower in colombo, the views are spectacular. but elsewhere, vital infrastructure projects have been put on hold, for lack of funds. far away from the capital, financial turmoil threatens nagamma's future, too. >> we work hard so we can try to live well, but after being comfortable for a short time, life became very tough. when things are like that, you lose your hopes and dreams that things will improve.” early morning at blue field tea estate and nagamma is busy getting ready for work.

husband haidrooze is making lunch. the stove is out of gas, so a small fire will have to do. nine people live in this workers' cottage. >> our house is actually two units combined. after our daughters were married, we had to give them one part of the house, so we live on the other side now." >> before nagamma goes to work, she wraps up against the rain.

when she and her daughter, hairunisha, are ready, they set off together. for an eight-hour shift they earn $3, at best. picking tea isn't as easy as it may seem. >> this is the type of shoot that should be left so it can be plucked next time. these types of leaves should be removed. these should be thrown away, if not, new ones won't grow. >> as nagamma gathers handfuls of leaves, haidrooze heads out, too. his disability pension isn't enough to support the family. so, he has no option but to work. >> it's not like before, i have a family to look after now. i have four kids. the price of everything has gone up. we have to be very cautious

about managing our expenses. >> at the factory it's weighing-in time. happy to be out of the rain at last, nagamma and her co-workers can go for lunch and a sit-down. all around them, the tea-making process never stops; it hasn't changed in 100 years here. as for these ancient machines, the knowhow to run them is handed down through the generations. in better times, the factory employed 250 people. but because of the crisis, 100 have been let go. no wonder workers and employers alike worry about what the crisis will mean for them. >> per day we can produce around 2.5 tonnes but last

month we produced around one tonne per day, so it's a huge difference because of the fuel problem and the shortage of fertiliser and the long-term of power cuts.” >> on the evening news, the president himself pledges that no-one is going to starve. it's the frightening new normal in sri lanka, still reeling from the political turmoil that followed emergencies including covid, and the country's first-ever debt default. some have been spared serious financial hardship and they can enjoy a day out. but today, millions of sri lankans are more vulnerable than ever because of their reversal of fortunes; just like these market traders in the capital. >> sugar is expensive, milk powder is expensive, tea is expensive.” >> no one is happy, we used to sell for 200 rupees or 300

rupees. now when we mention the price, people they're gone!” >> after another hard day, nagamma has some shopping to do, before she can go home to dry off. as prices rise, there's not a lot to go around - especially for nagamma. she won't give up, she has 'no choice.' >> it is because of the higher expenses that our lives are getting worse. the cost of living keeps rising day by day. we can't even afford biscuits and other snacks for the little ones. right now, we don't see how we wcan improve our lives untils things get better. we are only focused on battling right now, we don't see how we wcan these hard times.”untils >> rocketing prices are a big issue in peru, too.

many years of drought have led to food shortages. the un's food and agriculture organisation estimates that more than half the population is already affected and the country is now in political crisis too. for days, there have been widespread demonstrations. for many here, survival is about staying flexible. >> the war in ukraine is far away from the pacific coast of peru. but soaring prices from disrupted trade are hitting peruvians close to home. ricardo runs a medium-sized transport company. he likes to drive and enjoys the solitude behind the wheel. >> when i was little, i wanted to have my truck, my own truck because my parents didn't have the means. but i used to say, when i grow up and start working, i will

have a truck. and my dream came true, right? his business started with a single second-hand truck. today, ricardo's fleet counts 17, but only 10 vehicles have been running since covid and the economic crisis that followed. >> because of the crisis, i don't have clients anymore, i don't have as much freight as i used to. we used to load one or two trucks a day, and now, it's just two or three trucks a week.” the cost-of-living crisis has sparked violent protests in the country, intensifying the political turmoil. for entrepreneurs like ricardo, carrying on is proving difficult. soaring prices at the petrol station are pushing the cost of his services out of customers' reach. many have , with a third of his activity gone, the 52-year-old has to take difficult decisions. out of his four branches, he's

had to shut down two. 17 people have lost their job. what hurt me the most was to let go of the people i had worked with, my staff, those i'd been working with. both my drivers and loaders, i had to fire them. it was painful. it saddens me, because i worked with them, they were family." >> ricardo used to transport mainly hardware and paint to clients in remote areas of the country. such as this cargo, being loaded for his most loyal customers in the peruvian amazon. the 900 liters of fuel needed to cover the 84-hour drive cost 50 per cent more than before the start of the war in ukraine. with the slowdown of his activity, his profits have shrunk, as have his plans. >> i thought about buying buses. but that dream is now gone"

>> there are other dreams, too, that ricardo has put on hold >> if my level of income had remained the same, my ambition was at least to send my children to study, not here in peru, but abroad, or send them to a good university.” >> instead, his eldest son john is now joining the family business. as rising fuel prices make the evening headlines, ricardo and his family worry about keeping the activity afloat. but, he is used to taking adversity in his stride. and he's found new opportunities by turning to the markets, the wholesale food market. here, the peruvian food bank collects unsold produce and the world food program hires trucking companies, through public tenders, to deliver it

to the most vulnerable. it's a lifeline for the city's poor, but also for ricardo's business . >> i'm surviving. mostly because i always respond to public tenders. there is a little more earnings there. if it wasn't for the tender that i already have with the state, i would have already shutdown.” >> ricardo says the contracts allow him to keep afloat as he can at least pay his staff and overhead expenses, while doing some good for people in need. like in chorrillos, one of the g-shroud and dusty toships of lima. today, ricardo brings vegetables. this is a highly anticipated delivery. for jenny who runs one of chorrillos's soup kitchens and serves about 100 meals a day. here, as elsewhere, poor

families are struggling to make ends meet and they have to make hard choices to provide for their children: between education, a home and proper food. jenny knows very well what they are going through and what they need to get by. >> it's a nutritious meal; we don't just give anything, we give a very good meal to the neighbors, it allows them to help themselves: they must pay for electricity, internet, children at school, bus tickets every day so, this allows them to save a little for other needs.” >> jenny now provides food for taxi-drivers who have lost their income because of the high fuel prices. but the cost of delivering food to her soup kitchen is also on the rise. >> before, a 3-ton truck would charge me 150 soles. but now, they charge me 270, they even ask for 400!

i have to haggle over prices, look everywhere for the cheapest. ricardo and john say little on their way back from the soup kitchen. they both appreciate that they are well off and can still enjoy that most precious of things: hope >> we still have hope. my son john also cheers me up a lot as he says: "dad, let's move on. if you can't make the company grow anymore, i'll be the future.” >> a new day begins and soon a new life: ricardo's fifth child is on the way another milestone in his long journey. toothbrushes, bottles, computer chassis, aircraft parts, clothing plastic is everywhere. and more and more of it is being produced.

in 2019 alone, just under 460 million tons of it worldwide, in fact. and the majority of it ends up as plastic trash. less than 10 %of it is recycled worldwide. most of it is burned, ends up in a landfill or somewhere out in nature, in rivers and oceans. before that, though, there's cash to be made from plastic waste around the globe. these containers, sitting at a port in manila, almost triggered a war. they were full of garbage, including used adult diapers, and the philippines refused to let them into the country. >> "president rodrigo duterte just told trudeau that he has one week or its war." >> after rotti in the sun for arly six years, canada finally took its waste back and rnt it. it made headlines everywhere and revealed the dark underbelly of the global plastic waste network. it's rife with corruption, run

by private traders and fly-by-night establishments, and interpol found that it could be worse. >> "we often find the same names linked to other crimes - money laundering, tax evasion, fraud. it'sll the same criminals." >> and the currency driving it all? is plastic scrap. >> i want to find out more about what's going on but everybody i'm speaking to seems to be answering in code. >> so how does the global plastic waste trade even work? and how can get out of this mess? enter: china. by the nineties, china was becoming the world's manufacturer. every ds carrying all sorts of products would journey to the us and europe. but when they returned empty, they became a serious financial opportunity. the west consumed, collected its waste - and shipped it out of sight to china. china recycled what it could and sent back new products -

for more consumption. and this cycle was on repeat. and it was dirt cheap. for example, one us trader told me that even in 2010, while it would cost around $85 to dispose of a tonne of waste domestically it cost only $35 to ship a tonne of it to china! could there be a sweeter deal really? when low-grade or contaminated plastic was sent to china, either cheap labor was needed to sort it, or it had to be dumped and burnt. within a few years, several chinese towns near landfills and incineration sites started complaining of polluted air and water. cancer rates rose. so by 2018, china had had enough. it effectively banned all plastic waste imports. and the world had lost its number one recycler. but china was prepared. their recycling industry was established. and the country was now producing enough waste

domestically to supply its own raw materials for recycling. so post-ban: the rest of the world was scrambling. some waste was burned within the countries - but shipments of garbage still needed to find new destinations. and they found them soon enough, in countries close to china, like... >> malaysia, indonesia, thailand, philippines etc." >> heng chun is a campaigner with greenpeace in malaysia the country that became the leading importer at the time. greenpeace, along with citizens and governments of some southeast asian countries, are now demanding that the west to stop using them as the waste dumps of the world. >> especially the richer countries that produce lots of waste and then they're shipping the problem to a global south." >> but here's where it all got really murky. you can't recycle just any plastic. they come in grades that you can tell by looking at the bottom of the container. and each grade needs to be recycled on its own, in specific recycling plant.

it only makes sense to recycle high-grade plastic - like shampoo bottles or a detergent container - because what comes out on the other end still has value. but things like styrofoam, that food is comes in, can never be recycled, which means they'll only ever be used once. >> ok, this is, let's say, a container full of plastic" >> juhani grossmann looks into corruption in environmental-related businesses around the world. >> >> the government is going to pay, i don't know what, $5000 - i'm just making the figure up - to recycle it. and then the company says, ok, we're not actually going to recycle it. so we're going to keep $1000 dollars, and then we're going to spend $500 to send the container, and we're going to pay somebody $1000 in indonesia to make it disappear. and then we still have two and a half thousand dollars profit. it's something like that." >> and companies in asian countries are willing to take the plastic in. local waste collection is much less developed here. and so clean plastic can be

used it to feed e upcoming recycling industries. but here's where laws can be broken: the basel convention is the international treaty that stipulates which plastics can and can't be traded. it says, for example, that contaminated or low-grade plastics need special permission from the receiving countries' governments before they can be shipped. but independent investigators found that plastic traders have discovered ways to bypass this. first waste shipments can be mislabled, and pass through custom checks in the west. and then companies in developing countries who offer to take in low-grade or unsorted plastic find ways to smuggle it past the local authorities. even if checks take place, they can be evaded. >> and so the most obvious way in which corruption comes into play is to bribe officials to allow you to import that waste." >> once allowed into the country - traders need to find a way to make money from bad plastic. investigators found unsuitable disposal - including into

rivers, landfills, and plantations - along with cheap labour - to be the main modus operandi. so basically the same things that happened in china. but there's even more criminal energy in this. >> big criminals are relying on money laundering techniques. and this typically would te the form of a legal waste company that would engage in both legal and illal waste trade and then mix the payments across those two busines lines." ailsa hart's foundation has investigated the role of money laundering and tax fraud across the waste trade industry. proceeds from the legal wast trade uld be up to 12 billio dollars annual. >> andfor wae trafficking, manyf the largely remain with western countri. with importing cntries onl generang part of the profits from resale or reuse of certain with imporwastes."ries onl from 2021, the basel conntion toughened regutions. more types of plastics were banned.

but environmentalists say this. >> if we leave the door slightly open, someone wl go through it pierre condamine's group fights for environmental justice. in november 2021, it lobbied the german government to halt waste exports to vietnam. on average, a person in germany generates up to two kilos of trash every day. so can the european union deal with its own waste output? >> the eu is supposed to have the best waste management infrastructure in the worl and we knoit is shipng to countries where the waste management infrastructe is not so developed. if we don't have it; the countries to whiche ship, th definity do notave it." >> his group says western countriehave to develop their own recycling systems, like china did. the demand for some high-grade recycled plastics has been soaring lately, even beating virgin plastic out of the

competition in some cases. as more asian more countries clamp down or ban imports - the big question is: where will all the plastic go in the future? so what can be done? firstly, wider-reaching policies and stricter enforcement. and western countries have to invest in their own recycling industries to clean up their own mess. >> but to treat all that waste domestically, the thing that first needs to be cut down at source is the amount of plastic we produce, consume and throw away in the west."" >> in this week's global living room, we head to indonesia

>> welcome to my home in baduy village, lebak banten. please, come in. >> we call this room "imah ."we use it to eat with the family. sometimes if there are guests, they will sleep and eat together here. the stove is called "hawu," where my wife cooks in the morning, afternoon, and evening. we cook using firewood. we store our rice seeds in this case. we prepare them here. -- we will start planting rice next month.

this is a relic of my ancestors. we can't sell this. my father inherited it from his parents. this is my photo. this is my wife. this is my child. this is a photo of my father. this is my mother. there are my sons. thank you for visiting my home.

>> that is all from us at global 3000 this week. don't forget to send us your comments right to global 2000 and two redoubt, and visit us on facebook. see you next time.

>> russia's defense ministry's have said its forces have taken control of soledar. the eastern ukrainian town could be strategically important for russia in the donbass region. an explosion hits a key natural gas pipeline in central lithuania. the operator says no one was injured and there is no immediate evidence of an attack.