Your plastic waste might be traded by criminals

How does a sweet wrapper thrown away in Germany end up in a Malaysian river? Well, there's a bizarre plastic waste trade network, made murky by fly-by-night operators, weak international laws and corruption. So how does this entire thing operate? And can it be stopped?

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #PlasticWasteTrade #PlasticPollution

Reporter: Aditi Rajagopal
Camera: Henning Goll
Video editor: Julie Rosskopf
Supervising editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Joanna Gottschalk

Read More:

Interpol findings:

Waste exports crime case study in Italy:

Basel Governance convention on waste trafficking:

Greenpeace Reports:

00:00 Intro
01:14 The recycling myth
02:20 Enter: China
04:46 Post China's ban
05:34 The legalities of it all
09:45 Environmental justice
10:36 A business opportunity
11:25 Conclusion

[DWPlanetA]

Have you thought before about where your trash ends up?

[Acemans]

I'm starting to avoid plastic, starting slow but trying. I had a bad habit of buying packs of water bottles and just taking two to work everyday. I got a reusable aluminum bottle and just use the water fountain at work now.

[harukrentz]

This is why i always cringe whenever i heard developed country boasting about their environmental policy. Most often than not theyre running a scam, they ship those garbages to other countries, including mine.

[craftypam]

I've managed to find bar soap & shampoo (but not conditioner or moisturizer), and recently found someone who makes wafers of laundry soap, packaged & mailed in a card envelope. But it's hard to find products without a plastic outer. Once found, they are nearly all (1) more expensive & (2) only available online, so individually delivered, which is not very green. We, as consumers, can only try to pressure the manufacturers to change their offerings. Well done for another great highlight video.

[mellownuance]

that's why I use my textile handbag, and buy from local growers, where products aren't packed in plastic

[niharoad]

The main source is the daily consumables, our milk can, vegetables polythene bag that we get weighted and billed at the supermarket, meat - bread - chips & other perishable stuff packaging. If we find an alternative to plastic that can retain the liquid inside, would go a long way or we can be more responsible my having milk dispensing units at markets and carry our own container.

[Helawlf]

It amazes me how every time I go to take trash out, it's always overflowing at my complex. Instead of donating ones close to thrift shops I see people dumping them in trash bags. The same for new mugs and other sorts.

[jules]

Excellent fact-based report. Good variety of people getting interviewed.

Btw in many developed countries such as Canada for example, recycling companies do not actually have "a legal obligation to recycle." So there is a $$ incentive for them to just keep the profit and send it off. Which is crazy!

[JNelson]

It is so good to see all of the factors involved in the waste plastic fiasco covered so well here. Well done! I suggest a good follow up video would be on microplastic. It is a fast emerging field of science and knowledge of the details are a strong motivator to reduce plastic in one's own house.

[Holy_Frijole]

Dang I didn't think about illegal trade making it even harder to clean up our act.

[Drought-jrpb]

Actually there are some companies that can recycle styrofoam, like Styro-go in Canada that help styrofoam become more manageable blocks that can later be used in the manufacturing of more plastic. But it is not being used everywhere and is in the infant stage.

[tradeviolin]

There should be environmental tax on making plastic.
People these days eat credit card size micro plastic every week.
causing health problem such as cancer.

[JayendrenSubramoney]

Excellent Report. Great Video on an under-reported topic. Business will always find loopholes around well intentioned policies, so it's critical that reports like this expose these underhanded tactics. You forgot to add that people in general need to stop buying so much useless stuff - Consumerism has got to go. Oddly enough I've found that going Vegan drastically reduced the amount of the trash my household produces.

[zaferhaj]

a nice video as always.
I guess we need regulations from the government to restrict plastic production in the first place.

[Explodingstrawberry]

Just wanna say, really good job on this!

[MrVanillaCaramel]

We need a biodegradable alternative to plastic!

[francobollati]

I believe that the same companies that produce the goods, should be the ones that deals with the waste.
I mean, they already have the technology to make this products, so they are in a better position to go full circle. Then this companies can charge an extra cost for their products to the consumers.

Plastic? Let's talk about Coca-Cola.

Batteries are another issue.

[agw]

You can not ban certain plastics at the recycling state but before it is used at all. Ban those types of plastics from being imported/sold at all. We need a total ban on all products NOT on a approved list not the other way around, it won't stop pollution otherwise and recycling becomes pointless. Take the money out of the polluting products by refusing to allow them at all, make the packaging switch to the types that can be recycled regardless of cost increase on the products just like we did on plastic soda bottles. The industry will then be highly motivated and will find ways to reduce the cost of the "good" plastic.

[AlastorKrieger]

You technically can recycle polystyrene foam, but most municipalities send it to landfills or burn it due to it's low monetary value.

[basemsaaideh]

Could we have some more videos about the corruption in waste industry