2024-11-18
26 分钟An estimated five million tonnes of plastic waste is exported each year, with the majority coming from 10 high-income countries. Malaysia has become a global hub for plastic waste imports and recycling. But how clean and safe is the recycling trade and how much plastic can actually be recycled? For Assignment, Leana Hosea travels to Malaysia to meet those who are risking their lives to stem the tide of foreign plastic waste. She tracks unfolding research into microplastics and people’s health, and gains access inside recycling factories to reveal the dirty truth behind the trade.
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You are actually radioactive and everything alive.
Is Unexpected elements from the BBC World Service.
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I'm Liana Hosier.
Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
And for this week's assignment I'm in Malaysia, a global hub for plastic waste imports and recycling.
But how clean and safe is the trade?
And how much plastic can actually be recycled?
Now use your eyes to check first any worker surrounding.
Okay, I saw one worker.
I'm on a surveillance mission of plastic recycling factories in an industrial area of Selangor in Malaysia with Pualeping.
So we need to keep a low profile.
There's a cctv, you need to know how to avoid that.
Do I need to lower my microphones?
Yes, of course.
Puar is a petite, softly spoken woman in her early 50s.
But don't let that deceive you.
She's a force to be reckoned with and is nicknamed the Erin Brockovich of Malaysia.
Brockovich being the American environmental activist who successfully sued a utility company and was the subject of an Oscar winning Hollywood film in the year 2000 starring Julia Roberts.