Daily: Wild Wild Waste — How the West litters the world

Just 9% of all the plastic ever produced on planet Earth has been recycled. So where does the other 91% go? Despite our demand for disposable goods, the UK is hardly a plastic mountain. From litter on the Turkish littoral, to the second-hand textiles that flood Africa’s markets and South America’s deserts, there’s a chasm between where environmental damage is created, and where its impact is most destructively felt. Istanbul-based journalist Ruth Michaelson tells Jelena Sofronijevic about how we can tackle the West’s problem with waste, without simply outsourcing the climate crisis overseas…

• “There is a whole global chain of underpaid labour that suffers when you put your plastic bottle in the recycling bin.”
• “If we were not exporting our plastic waste, we would have to think about what we are doing with it.” 
• “There's a whack-a-mole quest to find new destinations for plastic waste.” 
• “The countries that claim to recycle the most also export the most waste.”
• “Environmental responsibility should fall on individual companies, not countries.”

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Presented and produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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