logo
episode-header-image
May 2017
23m 31s

Turning Plastic Trash into Cash

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Picking up money - that’s what Haitian’s nicknamed a movement seeking to solve Haiti’s plastic waste problem and reduce poverty at the same time. It was started by a man who saw a glimmer of hope in the devastation wrought by the 2010 earthquake: plastic bottles were clogging the beaches and filling the oceans with rubbish. But what if you could clear up the trash, give Haitians employment, and reduce the reliance on “virgin” plastic, all at the same time? It’s a bold idea that aims to solve two of the World’s big problems – poverty and plastic in the ocean. And it all hinges on attaching social value to recycled plastic. So why aren’t more companies doing it?

Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporter: Gemma Newby

(Image: Plastic rubbish on beach in Haiti, Credit: BBC)

Up next
Jul 8
Cutting food waste
Food waste is one of the biggest environmental and economic challenges we face — and much of it happens long before the food reaches our plates. In this episode, we meet the people working to tackle the problem in different ways. We hear about the smart sensors which could help c ... Show More
23m 24s
Jul 1
The traffic lights tackling poverty
Despite a lot of progress in the last few decades, more than a billion people still live in acute poverty, according to the UN. Many don’t have access to basic needs like food, water, shelter and clothing. We look at an innovative project in Paraguay where people identify their o ... Show More
23m 17s
Jun 24
What to do with stray animals
How the numbers of stray dogs - and feral pigeons - can be kept down kindly in urban areas. From street dogs to feral pigeons, many towns and cities are having to deal with exploding bird and animal populations which can pose risks to health and safety. This week we take a look a ... Show More
23m 23s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2017
Is it Time to Ban the Plastic Bottle?
Every single second, 20,000 single-use drinking bottles are sold around the world. That is more than a million pieces of non-biodegradable rubbish produced every minute. And as demand grows in developing economies, so will the mountains of waste, with much of it ending up in the ... Show More
23m 35s
Mar 2021
Plastic Pollution - with Steve Backshall and Georgia May Jagger
“If you’ve eaten seafood, you’ve eaten plastic” It’s time to talk plastics. Every piece of plastic we consume stays in the environment for up to hundreds of years. The sheer scale of plastics in the environment are dramatically impacting ocean wildlife and human health. For this ... Show More
27m 8s
May 2022
Turning waste into money
How does plastic get from your bin to the recycling plant? According to The Pew Charitable Trust, 60% of plastic recycling globally comes from individual waste pickers, an informal economy of millions of people who go out picking up plastic every day. As the world starts to look ... Show More
18m 45s
Jan 2024
How is plastic pollution affecting marine animals?
More than 171 trillion pieces of plastic are estimated to be floating in the world's oceans. We’ve touched on the extent of the plastic problem before on the pod, but this time we’re looking into how exactly its affecting marine creatures. Researchers say hermit crabs are increas ... Show More
15m 24s
Aug 2022
The problem with plastics -- and how to start cleaning up the mess | Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez
Plastics are everywhere -- they're in our favorite electronic devices, they package our food and insulate our homes. Today, the total mass of plastic is twice the total mass of all living organisms on the planet, and it's starting to change the processes that allow the Earth's cl ... Show More
10m 22s
Nov 2018
Why We Fell In Love with Plastic
Plastic waste and pollution have become a global problem but is there any sign of a global solution? And how did we allow this to happen in the first place? Materials scientist and broadcaster, Professor Mark Miodownik, explores how we fell in love with plastic, why we've ended u ... Show More
26m 28s