BBC World Service East Asia

Migrated podcast image for: Boston Calling

Boston Calling

Discussion & Talk

Factual

Agree to Disagree

How the world looks through American eyes, and the myriad and unexpected ways that the world influences the United States.

Boston Calling: Waste land

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Waste Land

22/06/2019 GMT

Waste land

BBC World Service - Boston Calling, Waste land

America's 'recycled' plastic is creating illegal wastelands in South East Asia

America's 'recycled' plastic is creating illegal wastelands in South East Asia.

The coastal lowlands along Malaysia’s side of the Strait of Malacca are a mostly lush place, studded with fat palms and forest canopies dripping with vines. But over the past year and a half, black pillars of smoke have appeared above the treetops. We investigate how plastic waste American municipalities send for recycling, is piling up in illegal dumps thousands of miles away.
 
Also, tiny plastic pellets, called 'nurdles' are the product of plastics producers, but why are these pellets appearing on the US Gulf Coast?; Americans have few options when it comes to recycled tissue products and that's having a devastating impact on Canada's northern forests; Meal kits are becoming very popular in the US, but are they helping us to reduce waste? 

(Plastic waste at an abandoned factory in Jenjarom, a district of Kuala Langat, outside Kuala Lumpur. From grubby packaging engulfing small Southeast Asian communities to waste piling up in plants from the US to Australia, China's ban on accepting the world's used plastic has plunged global recycling into turmoil. Credit: Mohd Rasfan/Getty Images)

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Boston Calling

Waste land

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East Asia

About BBC World Service