logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2022
23m 50s

Picking up healthcare with the litter

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Would you pick up litter if your life depended on it?

Around the world, companies and governments are trying to incentivise people to pick up litter and recycle their waste. In Nigeria, we visit the tech start-up which encourages people to pick rubbish up off the street – and then swaps the plastic bottles, cartons and metals they collect for potentially life-saving healthcare.

And in Turkey, we meet the mayor on a mission to get his residents recycling, by exchanging their household waste for points that earn them money. Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporters: Craig Langran and Kareemot Salami Producer: Jo Casserly Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Hal Haines Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk Image: Recycling in Turkey

Up next
Oct 27
We've moved! Subscribe to The Documentary
People Fixing The World has moved to a new home. Just search for The Documentary wherever you get your podcasts to continue hearing from Myra and the team, with a new episode exploring positive solutions to some of the world's biggest challenges published every Wednesday. 
43s
Oct 20
Breaking the code of silence
We travel to the Italian island of Sicily to see how Palermo residents are fighting back against the influence of the Mafia. Presenter Myra Anubi meets people from the charity Addiopizzo, which encourages residents to stop paying protection money known as "pizzo" and visit a neig ... Show More
23m 38s
Oct 13
The everyday tech helping to prevent disasters
For International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (October 13th), we're finding out how technology can help prevent disasters, save lives and help rescuers. In Argentina, we’ll meet Franco Rodríguez Viau whose family friends lost their home in a fire, inspiring him to find a way ... Show More
25m 21s
Recommended Episodes
May 2025
Tackling the tide of trash
Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from Nigeria and the UK who are trying to ensure what we throw away doesn’t go to waste.Esther Fagbo is a partner at Wecyclers in Nigeria – a for-profit social enterprise that pays waste pickers and households for their recyclable rubbish in d ... Show More
26m 28s
Feb 2019
Is Recycling All Our Waste at Home Possible?
Waste, trash, garbage – whatever you call it, unwanted materials have become a major presence in many of our lives and our environment. Every year it is estimated that humans around the world produce 2 billion metric tonnes of waste. Listener Clare from Devon in the UK wants to s ... Show More
30m 38s
Apr 2022
What to Do About Trash?
Trash is one of the biggest problems on the planet. But scientists are coming up with solutions that might surprise you. In this Earth Day episode, we meet two researchers who are tackling trash in two very different ways. Kevin Solomon hopes to solve the challenge of recycling p ... Show More
21m 29s
May 2023
Recycling
In this special edition of Inside Science, Vic Gill prepares to rummage through our rubbish, to peek behind the curtain of the UK's recycling habits and see how well prepared we are as a nation to further our efforts of sustainable waste management.Presenter: Vic Gill Producer: E ... Show More
27m 54s
Jun 2022
How do we fix recycling?
Tai tries to do his part by recycling whenever he can. But it turns out just tossing stuff into the blue bin doesn't do a whole lot: less than 10 percent of our plastic waste actually gets recycled, with the rest either ending up in landfill, burned or shipped overseas! How did w ... Show More
30m 46s
Oct 2023
Episode 78
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the need to tackle the fantastic quantities of waste and pollution from the healthcare sector - 5 to 7% of global emissions and 5th largest polluter if we thought of it as a country - and how the doctors, demigods everywhere, are in the process of be ... Show More
27m 40s
May 2025
Cleaning the World Together
Joshua Leo and Liz Waid look at an effort to clean up the world's garbage waste in one day! "Let's Do It!" started in Estonia, but it is spreading around the world.https://spotlightenglish.com/international-un-days/cleaning-the-world-together/Download our app for Android at http: ... Show More
13m 45s