Panorama Recycling Where Does My Rubbish Go — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:04big bills and a big thank you tomorrow
2. 0:06at this time diy sos in northumberland
3. 0:09to reunite four generations under one
4. 0:12roof at eight
5. 0:13and so now rubbish and recycling
6. 0:15revelations on bbc one
7. 0:17[Music]
8. 0:21how much do you know about what happens
9. 0:23to the plastic in your cupboards
10. 0:25we built plastic as the perfect material
11. 0:28it's durable but that is exactly why
12. 0:30it's become such a problem because it
13. 0:32does not degrade
14. 0:34there's a good chance you'd have bought
15. 0:36stuff with this logo on it terracycle
16. 0:39the company behind it says it can
17. 0:40recycle anything
18. 0:43you know when you look at a crisp packet
19. 0:44and think
20. 0:45that would make a great garden chair
21. 0:48but in the us the company's been accused
22. 0:50of green washing when you describe
23. 0:52terracycle's business model to people i
24. 0:55often get a kind of uh really
25. 0:57look off them if there's nothing
26. 1:00to indicate
27. 1:01guys
28. 1:02there might be some quite significant
29. 1:04restrictions on this it is potentially
30. 1:06misleading
31. 1:08so is terracycle all it aspires to be
32. 1:11you know my hope uh at the end one day
33. 1:14we're all gonna die and my hope is that
34. 1:17when that happens
35. 1:18that the world misses me
36. 1:24[Music]
37. 1:28i've come to trionen beach in cornwall
38. 1:33for the monthly local cleanup
39. 1:36we're all looking for the same thing
40. 1:38majority of the plastic will be on the
41. 1:41high tide point or the car park there's
42. 1:44going to be loads of litter there or up
43. 1:46in the sand dunes over there
44. 1:49four years ago emily and her friend
45. 1:51lawrence found something that shows just
46. 1:53how long plastic pollution can last
47. 1:57i found this crisp packet when i was 10
48. 1:59years old
49. 2:00i looked it and was like this is not
50. 2:03a crisp packet you'd see today i've
51. 2:05never seen this design on a walkers
52. 2:06chris packets i gave it to emily and she
53. 2:09said that looks like something from a
54. 2:11long time ago
55. 2:13the packet dates back to the 1980s much
56. 2:16much older than lawrence can i have a
57. 2:18look
58. 2:20the story of the 30 year old chris
59. 2:22packett went viral sparking calls for
60. 2:24change
61. 2:26he was in news all around the world
62. 2:28it was in the new york post
63. 2:30the picture of lawrence with his chris
64. 2:32packet did so well because a
65. 2:34ten-year-old holding up a packet three
66. 2:36times his age tells the story of plastic
67. 2:38pollution
68. 2:40[Music]
69. 2:46we have an insatiable appetite for
70. 2:48plastic packaging
71. 2:50it's convenient it increases the life of
72. 2:52our food and it's easy to transport
73. 2:54[Music]
74. 2:56in the uk we use nearly two and a half
75. 2:58million tonnes of plastic packaging
76. 3:00every year
77. 3:03some of it like plastic drink bottles is
78. 3:05relatively easy to recycle
79. 3:09but some is much harder like flexible
80. 3:11food packaging
81. 3:13and here's why
82. 3:17i've a selection of flexible plastic
83. 3:19packaging what a lot of people don't
84. 3:21realize is the reason these are so
85. 3:23difficult to recycle because they use
86. 3:24multiple materials
87. 3:27this is a laminate structure two layers
88. 3:30of polypropylene one of those layers has
89. 3:32got a very very thin layer of aluminium
90. 3:35this pouch you'll have a layer of
91. 3:36polypropylene again then you have a
92. 3:38layer of aluminium actual aluminium foil
93. 3:41a layer of pet cheese wrap is made from
94. 3:44nylon and ldpe
95. 3:47they're great for saving resources and
96. 3:51they're very lightweight so they save
97. 3:53emissions in transport but then when it
98. 3:55comes to recycling then it becomes more
99. 3:57complicated
100. 4:01my name is tom i'm the founder and ceo
101. 4:03of terracycle
102. 4:05this company says it's got the answer it
103. 4:08wants to eliminate the idea of waste
104. 4:14up in the us in 2001 terracycle calls
105. 4:17itself a global leader in recycling
106. 4:20one of its most high-profile
107. 4:21partnerships in the uk was with walkers
108. 4:24following the discovery of that crisp
109. 4:26packet on a cornish beach
110. 4:29working with big brands it says it can
111. 4:31recycle the unrecyclable
112. 4:34from cigarette butts to chewing gum and
113. 4:35everything in between
114. 4:38sending it to places like this
115. 4:41so it can then be turned into things
116. 4:43like this
117. 4:45it guarantees nothing is sent to
118. 4:47landfill or incinerated
119. 4:51the company says it's already recycled
120. 4:53more than 7 billion items worldwide
121. 4:57much of it plastic that most councils
122. 5:00don't want us to put in our household
123. 5:02recycling bins
124. 5:04we're joined by tom zaki
125. 5:07its founder has been hailed on the world
126. 5:09stage here he is speaking to global
127. 5:12leaders at the world economic forum
128. 5:14these goals what we have at terracycle
129. 5:16in a humble way echo the amazing and i
130. 5:19think really inspiring commitments that
131. 5:20organizations like the ones
132. 5:23i was invited to terracycle's european
133. 5:25headquarters in west london to meet the
134. 5:27man himself
135. 5:28hello tom hi how you doing terracycle is
136. 5:31a mission-driven waste management
137. 5:32company and uh we've been privileged to
138. 5:34be working for 20 years across 21
139. 5:36countries including here in the uk for
140. 5:37well over a decade i've dedicated my
141. 5:40entire professional life to try to make
142. 5:42this world somewhat better for my
143. 5:43children
144. 5:44you know my hope uh at the end one day
145. 5:47we're all gonna die and my hope is that
146. 5:49when that happens
147. 5:51that the world misses me
148. 5:55it's a bold statement and an ambitious
149. 5:58vision but can his company deliver
150. 6:01we decided to take a closer look first
151. 6:04we wanted to know how easy it is to
152. 6:07recycle through terracycle
153. 6:09you can help us at kb snacks through our
154. 6:11partnership with terracycle
155. 6:14there are several ways you can get your
156. 6:16waste to terracycle
157. 6:18we're going to look at recycling schemes
158. 6:20sponsored by big brands
159. 6:22most use community collection points in
160. 6:25places like schools front gardens and
161. 6:27community centres
162. 6:29they're run by volunteers who can be
163. 6:31rewarded with money for charity but some
164. 6:34people have complained on social media
165. 6:36that there aren't enough collection
166. 6:38points
167. 6:40hi your food pouch recycling drop-offs
168. 6:43are a million miles away
169. 6:45and we live in central london
170. 6:49our nearest terrace cycle uk is more
171. 6:51than two hours away
172. 6:56[Music]
173. 6:59i'm on my way to meet the ps family
174. 7:01we've asked them to try it out
175. 7:04as a family we recycle all the time
176. 7:06actually that's just part of our daily
177. 7:08routine because
178. 7:09recycling is such an important matter
179. 7:11because if you don't recycle
180. 7:14it could end up in the sea an effect on
181. 7:16the marine life and
182. 7:17it's our planet and we need to look
183. 7:19after it
184. 7:20they live in west london just a few
185. 7:22miles from terracycle's european hq
186. 7:26shall we take a look at some of the
187. 7:28packaging
188. 7:29i've i bought you a gift
189. 7:31if you could get some kind
190. 7:33biscuit
191. 7:36they collected a week's worth of
192. 7:38packaging more bread
193. 7:40and i bought some along too
194. 7:42next they have to look at the terracycle
195. 7:45website i think from our packaging we
196. 7:47saw that water tools
197. 7:48have that sign the terracycle side
198. 7:52it says any brand of bakery plastic
199. 7:56packaging
200. 7:58the first thing they learn is that each
201. 8:00type of packaging for bread cheese
202. 8:02snacks biscuits or dishwasher tablets
203. 8:05has to go to a separate collection point
204. 8:09so i'm seeing a bit of an issue here
205. 8:10because you have to go to different
206. 8:11locations you can't just go to one place
207. 8:14and do your terror cycling for different
208. 8:16packaging
209. 8:18the different collection points are
210. 8:20between two and eight miles away from
211. 8:22their home and in different directions
212. 8:25there we go there's hayes
213. 8:28we work we have busy lives and there's
214. 8:31no way that we can we can fit this into
215. 8:33our routine because it's so spread out
216. 8:39for today they go to the two closest
217. 8:41collection points
218. 8:44[Music]
219. 8:47here we go i think i spy the terracycle
220. 8:49logo guys
221. 8:52there we go mia here we are actually
222. 8:54it's not it's
223. 8:55no it's not right
224. 8:57the cycling program is closing
225. 9:01let's have a look
226. 9:04the collection point has closed down it
227. 9:07didn't say that on the terracycle
228. 9:08website
229. 9:10[Music]
230. 9:12terracycle says it relies on volunteers
231. 9:14to tell them if they stop collecting but
232. 9:16the people at the church say it was
233. 9:18closed by terracycle
234. 9:20the company now says the volunteers can
235. 9:22reopen if they want to
236. 9:27back in the car off to the next one
237. 9:31okay here we are
238. 9:33recycle your cracker biscuits and cake
239. 9:35wrappers fantastic yeah all right we put
240. 9:38it all in yeah it's all in there
241. 9:41hold on kids
242. 9:44who want to walk don't they
243. 9:46and pop their recycling in the bins they
244. 9:48don't want to drive everywhere
245. 9:50this is annoyed me a little bit because
246. 9:52we've spent an hour already going to two
247. 9:55different places imagine if we had to go
248. 9:56to those other places
249. 9:58in all the family made a 10 mile round
250. 10:01trip but were only able to drop off 35
251. 10:03grams of plastic
252. 10:05[Music]
253. 10:08of course it was the first time you've
254. 10:09done it lots of good intention there is
255. 10:11it something that you you would try
256. 10:13again do you think
257. 10:15i think we would try it again in our
258. 10:17free time the intention's there that we
259. 10:19want to do it but i do think it's a big
260. 10:21ask i really do
261. 10:23because it's so
262. 10:25so
263. 10:26challenging in terms of the geography
264. 10:30there's a cost-benefit analysis here
265. 10:32what is the environmental benefit of
266. 10:34driving literally miles or uh to to drop
267. 10:37off what could be a small bag of
268. 10:40crisp packets
269. 10:42when you describe terracycle's business
270. 10:44model to people
271. 10:45i often get a kind of uh really
272. 10:48look off them
273. 10:51teracycle says its independently
274. 10:53verified research shows the community
275. 10:55model is environmentally beneficial
276. 10:59but it didn't take into account
277. 11:01emissions from driving to collection
278. 11:03points
279. 11:05no one uses our programs uh the way that
280. 11:08you ask that family to use our programs
281. 11:10they either are already going to a
282. 11:12collection location that is the most
283. 11:14common behavior type
284. 11:15or if if uh if not it's usually on their
285. 11:18way and they're accumulating close to
286. 11:19three to four kilos per waste stream
287. 11:22a crumpet bag it weighs four grams
288. 11:25so if you wanted two kilograms of
289. 11:28crumpet bags
290. 11:29you'd have to get through 500 packets of
291. 11:32prompts
292. 11:33that seems unrealistic for a family
293. 11:36doesn't it
294. 11:37but that's not how people use our
295. 11:38programs i agree no one's going to
296. 11:41consume that level of crumb pit bags
297. 11:42they're typically accumulating to get to
298. 11:45those numbers not at their home
299. 11:47but at a place of aggregation like at an
300. 11:49office i think this is the important
301. 11:51part when you judge a program it should
302. 11:52be judged on how citizens are using the
303. 11:54program today now can it be more
304. 11:57convenient and can it be easier
305. 11:58absolutely
306. 12:01terracycle says it started a new scheme
307. 12:03in west london so people can drop off a
308. 12:06range of packaging at their local
309. 12:08recycling center
310. 12:11brands pay a fee for working with
311. 12:13terracycle it can be anything from tens
312. 12:16to hundreds of thousands of pounds a
313. 12:18year
314. 12:19the amount that can be recycled depends
315. 12:21on how much they pay so there's a limit
316. 12:23to the number of collection points
317. 12:26for many the fee also includes use of
318. 12:28the terracycle logo on their packaging
319. 12:33so when shoppers buy something with that
320. 12:35logo on it would they know what it means
321. 12:39chris i've done a bit of a shop
322. 12:41bought a bunch of stuff here
323. 12:42i'm looking at some packaging with
324. 12:44consumer law expert professor chris
325. 12:47willett
326. 12:48all these products have the terracycle
327. 12:51logo on them
328. 12:53do you think if someone was to see that
329. 12:54logo whilst they're doing their shop
330. 12:56they'd understand
331. 12:58what it actually means
332. 13:01there's clearly an indication that it's
333. 13:02recyclable so then the question becomes
334. 13:05what kind of conditions are there on
335. 13:07that i don't see any conditions or the
336. 13:10the fact that even conditions exist here
337. 13:13so
338. 13:13i suppose that the average consumer is
339. 13:16likely to be misled if it turns out that
340. 13:18there are significant conditions
341. 13:20one of those conditions is the distance
342. 13:23you might have to travel to recycle your
343. 13:25waste
344. 13:27let's take a look at these
345. 13:28digestives the the largest lettering
346. 13:31says film recycled and then it says in
347. 13:34the uk and ie by terracycle.eu
348. 13:38there's nothing to qualify that at all
349. 13:39there's nothing to suggest oh well even
350. 13:42you better visit the website and you
351. 13:44might find out more there's no
352. 13:46indication that there would be any
353. 13:47significant restrictions is it
354. 13:49misleading does it suggest that
355. 13:52the recycling is an easier process than
356. 13:54perhaps it actually is my feeling is yes
357. 13:56it is misleading precisely because of
358. 14:00the headline signal message
359. 14:02and then quite how long it would take to
360. 14:05work out that there are serious
361. 14:06qualifications
362. 14:08on that that could involve
363. 14:10significant travel
364. 14:11there are products though that use the
365. 14:13phrase recycled by terracycle that
366. 14:15doesn't reference any caveats no it does
367. 14:17by terracycle so we always mandate with
368. 14:20brands that at minimum not at maximum
369. 14:22but at minimum they must say buy or
370. 14:24through terracycle let's make it very
371. 14:26clear that this is not council recycling
372. 14:28that this is recycling through
373. 14:29terracycle and then
374. 14:31consumers typically will go to our
375. 14:32website where there is phenomenal detail
376. 14:35on exactly how every program works what
377. 14:37happens to the waste you name it if we
378. 14:39take these the kp knots of course it's
379. 14:41got the logo there it says please
380. 14:43dispose of this responsibly find out how
381. 14:45you can recycle it at
382. 14:47terracycle.com uk
383. 14:49there's nothing here that's saying you
384. 14:51might have to travel it's just saying
385. 14:53look at the website that to me suggests
386. 14:57well i can look later but it will be
387. 14:58easy
388. 15:01so what happens if there are no
389. 15:02collection points near you can you set
390. 15:05up your own we checked on the website
391. 15:08the kp scheme was closed to new
392. 15:10volunteers
393. 15:12it says please note the program is
394. 15:14currently full
395. 15:16please drop off your way to an existing
396. 15:18drop-off location
397. 15:19well i think the terracycle logo
398. 15:22is clearly indicating as a headline you
399. 15:25can recycle now
400. 15:27if there's nothing alongside that
401. 15:30to indicate
402. 15:32guys
403. 15:32there might be some quite significant
404. 15:35restrictions on this it is potentially
405. 15:37misleading
406. 15:39the owner of mcviti's digestives platys
407. 15:42denies the labels are misleading and
408. 15:44says they contain a clear reference to
409. 15:46the terracycle.eu website but consumers
410. 15:49can find more information
411. 15:51kp snacks says it knows people want to
412. 15:54be able to recycle more and it's
413. 15:56committed to providing options for its
414. 15:58consumers
415. 16:00last year terracycle and eight brands it
416. 16:03works with in the us settled a legal
417. 16:05challenge over recycling claims on their
418. 16:07packaging
419. 16:08they'd fail to mention any limitations
420. 16:11to their collection schemes
421. 16:14so why not be more clear why not put
422. 16:16those caveats on the pocket
423. 16:18as i was going to say that's exactly
424. 16:19what we're doing so this year we are
425. 16:22asking brands it's rolling out this year
426. 16:24all of this uh
427. 16:25all of these requests to ensure that
428. 16:27brands add any qualifiers uh if there's
429. 16:29a geographic limit for example if
430. 16:31there's other forms of limit that's
431. 16:32exactly what we're doing and we're doing
432. 16:33it nationally in the united states and
433. 16:35in fact every country around the world
434. 16:37so you will see it in the future
435. 16:40on uk packaging
436. 16:42next we want to check out how much waste
437. 16:44gets collected and recycled through
438. 16:46terracycle's partnerships with big
439. 16:48brands you know when you look at a crisp
440. 16:51packet and think
441. 16:52that would make a great garden chair
442. 16:56as well as paying for recycling and the
443. 16:58use of the logo some brands also pay for
444. 17:01marketing and pr
445. 17:04looked at two of the biggest brand
446. 17:05sponsored collection schemes kp snacks
447. 17:08and pladis the owner of jacobs mcvities
448. 17:11and cars
449. 17:15this is platys promoting its recycling
450. 17:17achievements
451. 17:18but what do these numbers tell us
452. 17:21[Music]
453. 17:23those millions is a good thing
454. 17:25but it's the percentage the proportion
455. 17:28of the individual pieces of packaging
456. 17:30produced by those brands so what is the
457. 17:32what is the percentage that would be an
458. 17:33interesting statistic to see
459. 17:35um on their website for the crisp
460. 17:38packets that they they have what
461. 17:39percentage are they working on here
462. 17:42we decided to crunch the numbers nearly
463. 17:4516 and a half million rappers have been
464. 17:47recycled over the last 10 years
465. 17:49according to terracycle through the
466. 17:50plaidis scheme in the uk sounds
467. 17:53impressive but to give you an idea of
468. 17:55scale and how many of these products are
469. 17:58sold mcvities say 56 million packets of
470. 18:02plain digestives and 71 million packets
471. 18:06of chocolate digestives are consumed
472. 18:08each year and that's just these two
473. 18:11products
474. 18:12so plaid is this game collected the
475. 18:14equivalent of one percent of wrappers
476. 18:16for just these two products over that
477. 18:19period
478. 18:20and that looks
479. 18:21like this
480. 18:23[Music]
481. 18:26it's a drop in the ocean isn't it
482. 18:28it's a start though it's a beginning
483. 18:31and before terracycle existed there was
484. 18:33no solution to recycle those wrappers
485. 18:36it's the same story with kp snacks it
486. 18:38makes hula hoops skips and mccoys
487. 18:40terracycle says nearly 16.3 million
488. 18:43rappers have been collected for
489. 18:45recycling in the uk over the last three
490. 18:47years
491. 18:48but kp themselves say nearly half a
492. 18:51billion packets of hula hoops are
493. 18:53consumed in the uk each year
494. 18:57so kp's terracycle program collected the
495. 19:00equivalent of around one percent of hula
496. 19:03hoop packets that were generated during
497. 19:06that period
498. 19:11kp snax says it's trying to reduce its
499. 19:14use of plastic and there's no
500. 19:15infrastructure in the uk right now to
501. 19:17collect sort and recycle flexible
502. 19:20plastic at scale
503. 19:23platis says it works with terracycle to
504. 19:25ensure its collection capacity meets
505. 19:27consumer demand and that it's also part
506. 19:30of a scheme running collection points at
507. 19:32some major retailers
508. 19:34so a terracycle making brands look
509. 19:37greener than they are and could it be
510. 19:39slowing the development of more
511. 19:41sustainable packaging i think a very
512. 19:43base level there is some recycled
513. 19:46material that comes back to them but it
514. 19:47is a pretty small percentage of what
515. 19:49they're producing i think more broadly
516. 19:51than that it's the the pr opportunities
517. 19:54um to to say that they're working with a
518. 19:56um a respected organization
519. 19:58the worry is that by using models like
520. 20:01terracycle that they're using it to kick
521. 20:03the can down the road um and that they
522. 20:06can
523. 20:08push the target further away um all the
524. 20:10while continuing to benefit from the
525. 20:13current practices rather than making the
526. 20:15deep changes that are needed there's a
527. 20:18disparity there isn't there between the
528. 20:20theory and what's actually happening
529. 20:21isn't that the very definition
530. 20:24of greenwashing no it's not the
531. 20:27definition of grain washing is lying to
532. 20:29consumers
533. 20:31any sustainability program starts at
534. 20:33zero and then grows based on the
535. 20:35interest of the stakeholders and so if
536. 20:37you were to approach sustainability in
537. 20:39the way you are then no program would
538. 20:41ever start and no program would ever
539. 20:43have the chance to flourish uh and grow
540. 20:46is it not a concern that if you've got
541. 20:49tiny percentages of this packaging being
542. 20:50recycled that should actually hinder
543. 20:53companies taking more radical action
544. 20:56see i think that's a completely false uh
545. 20:58concept and i'll tell you why because
546. 20:59we're in the room with these
547. 21:00organizations all the time
548. 21:02so let's just imagine we're a biscuit
549. 21:04brand okay we've been for decades making
550. 21:06biscuit wrappers that are not recyclable
551. 21:09and now we want to make it a a
552. 21:11recyclable and there's no
553. 21:14suitable commercially viable design
554. 21:15choices
555. 21:17so
556. 21:17their next best bet is to take voluntary
557. 21:20responsibility over that particular
558. 21:21waste stream
559. 21:24terracycle says it's on a mission to
560. 21:26change the world
561. 21:29i think we can shift
562. 21:31and become much more in tuned with
563. 21:33nature
564. 21:34and consuming and thriving in a
565. 21:36sustainable way
566. 21:40it says it has strict controls on what
567. 21:42it calls its recycling chain of custody
568. 21:45and it never exports waste abroad but a
569. 21:48recent undercover investigation has
570. 21:50raised questions about those assurances
571. 21:564 am we return to the facility
572. 22:00august 2021 bulgaria
573. 22:03a team of journalists is investigating
574. 22:05the international trade in plastic waste
575. 22:11we notice that each bale is made up of
576. 22:13only one type of packet
577. 22:16cat food
578. 22:17bread bags crisp packets
579. 22:22looking closer
580. 22:23we find a label
581. 22:25they've come from a company called
582. 22:27terracycle
583. 22:32the journalists discover more than 20
584. 22:34bales of plastic packaging at this
585. 22:36recycling facility
586. 22:38it's all from the uk and all from
587. 22:40terracycle collection schemes
588. 22:44i was shocked because we do not send
589. 22:47waste abroad
590. 22:48and uh we always mandate that everything
591. 22:50is recycled
592. 22:52and uh clearly a subcontractor had
593. 22:54broken their legal commitment with us
594. 22:56the moment we found out about this we
595. 22:58immediately tracked it
596. 22:59found it at a great expense we covered
597. 23:01it and it's now being recycled locally
598. 23:03in the uk
599. 23:06but we decided to take a closer look at
600. 23:08what had gone on
601. 23:10now this is where it gets a bit
602. 23:12complicated
603. 23:14terracycle says it was using a recycler
604. 23:16based here in the west midlands called
605. 23:18berry polymer hired for them by a waste
606. 23:21broker
607. 23:22but it was another company called dts
608. 23:24trading also based here and run by the
609. 23:27same man that sent the terracycle waste
610. 23:30to bulgaria
611. 23:33dts said the bills were accidentally
612. 23:35loaded onto a truck heading to bulgaria
613. 23:38they say that comes down to human error
614. 23:41on the part of a temporary forklift
615. 23:43truck driver
616. 23:49it's surprising that they would end up
617. 23:50in a place like bulgaria
618. 23:52ed kozia is a plastics recycling expert
619. 23:57dts did provide
620. 23:59a justification they suggested that this
621. 24:02material was loaded wrongly by a temp
622. 24:05forklift truck driver so perhaps it was
623. 24:08a one-off do you think that's plausible
624. 24:10it is plausible
625. 24:12the recycling industry does have a
626. 24:13turnover of staff and if you don't train
627. 24:16the staff that can happen however if
628. 24:18you're loading a
629. 24:20lorry with goods you're normally loading
630. 24:2220 tons and so normally
631. 24:25the goods have to be earmarked for a
632. 24:27destination it would be a big error to
633. 24:30send all this material to the wrong
634. 24:31destination especially if it's difficult
635. 24:34to recycle
636. 24:36dts says it wasn't illegal to send waste
637. 24:39to bulgaria and it was a genuine mistake
638. 24:42but it's not the first time dts has
639. 24:44found itself in hot water
640. 24:47[Music]
641. 24:49the company have been in trouble with
642. 24:51the authorities in 2018 they were
643. 24:53sanctioned by the environment agency a
644. 24:56freedom of information request for this
645. 24:58program revealed that was for sending
646. 25:00contaminated waste to indonesia
647. 25:04terracycle says it's never worked with
648. 25:06dts only berry polymer but its license
649. 25:10to recycle was in the name of dts and
650. 25:12barry polymer ceased trading a year
651. 25:15before the terracycle waste was sent to
652. 25:17bulgaria
653. 25:21barry polymer is only connected to dts
654. 25:24because they share the same owner
655. 25:25they're independent companies we never
656. 25:27did any work with dts and we were
657. 25:29working with barry polymers
658. 25:31which is a recycler of waste and the
659. 25:34only connection
660. 25:35is that the owner happens to be the same
661. 25:37so i'm really confused how did the waste
662. 25:39that had been collected via terracycle
663. 25:41end up at the dts plant then
664. 25:43certainly i believe that uh barry
665. 25:45polymer and dts
666. 25:47work in the same general sort of campus
667. 25:49if you will we were focused entirely on
668. 25:52berry polymers and barry polymers is in
669. 25:54good standing and their process is
670. 25:57exactly what we asked it to be
671. 26:00but last month the man who was in charge
672. 26:02of both barry polymer and dts tian yong
673. 26:05wang pleaded guilty to illegally
674. 26:07exporting household waste to indonesia
675. 26:10in 2019
676. 26:12mr wang says he's sorry he failed to
677. 26:14comply with export regulations on that
678. 26:16occasion and says that his company has
679. 26:18improved its practices and no longer
680. 26:21exports waste
681. 26:24terracycle says it'll never work with mr
682. 26:26wang again and is considering legal
683. 26:28action against its waste broker
684. 26:34recycling plastic packaging by turning
685. 26:36it into something else is terracycle's
686. 26:39calling card but it wants to move on
687. 26:44in loop instead of the consumer owning
688. 26:46the package the consumer borrows the
689. 26:48package
690. 26:50tom zaki's next big thing is reusable
691. 26:54as a citizen you can go to the store uh
692. 26:57buy your favorite product in a fully
693. 26:58reusable package already filled in
694. 27:00everything just pay a deposit then when
695. 27:01you're done you can return it to any
696. 27:03participating retailer where it doesn't
697. 27:05end up as a waste or even a recycling it
698. 27:06gets cleaned and then refilled and then
699. 27:08around it goes again
700. 27:14three two one
701. 27:15nicely done
702. 27:18what is that so this could be from
703. 27:20anything it's just a soft plastic film
704. 27:22so maybe packaging but who really knows
705. 27:25but you can see
706. 27:26it started off with something much
707. 27:27bigger i don't want it to fly off i'm
708. 27:29gonna chuck it in there
709. 27:32the good news is that the amount of
710. 27:34plastic packaging on supermarket shelves
711. 27:37is reducing we're recycling four times
712. 27:40as much today as we were 20 years ago
713. 27:44many brands including some that work
714. 27:46with terracycle have pledged to deal
715. 27:48with the problem of plastic packaging by
716. 27:512025
717. 27:53but right now lots of it still ends up
718. 27:55in landfill or burnt and saying all of
719. 27:58its recyclable risks encouraging brands
720. 28:02and consumers to feel good when greater
721. 28:05change is needed
722. 28:37you