Every minute of every day the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is emptied into the world’s oceans. Thanks to other BBC series like Blue Planet and Drowning in Plastic, we’ve all seen the devastating effect this is having on our world’s wildlife. In this new three-part series, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Anita Rani explore where this gigantic problem is coming from, and what we can all do to try and solve it.
Every minute of every day, a truckload of plastic enters our oceans. It destroys because it endures, breaking down into smaller pieces and particles.
S1E1 • 2019 • Environment
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Anita Rani explore where this gigantic problem is coming from, and what we can all do to try and solve it. Hugh goes on the trail of the plastic that does get recycled Malaysia has become one of the biggest importers of British waste plastics. He travels to Malaysia to try and find out what is happening to it all, and what he sees shocks him to the core. Great piles of unsorted British plastics have been left to rot on illegal dumpsites with much of it sat near split UK council recycling bags.
S1E2 • 2019 • Environment
In the final episode of the series, Anita Rani investigates the tsunami of single-use plastic that parents pick up in the form of give-away toys. It turns out that McDonald's are the largest toy distributor in the world, handing out over 1.4 billion plastic toys per year worldwide. They claim on their website that they are recyclable, but a visit to Simon Ellin, the CEO of the Recycling Association, makes it very clear that while that may be true in theory, in reality it’s not that simple. Meanwhile, Hugh is in Scotland. He’s learnt that at the same time as the public are trying to reduce the amount of plastics in their lives, the plastics industry has big plans to increase plastic production by 50% before 2040. To find out more, he visits the INEOS factory in Grangemouth, owned by the richest man in Britain, where they produce a staggering 60-70 billion tiny plastic pellets every day.
S1E3 • 2019 • Environment