A crime thriller from the real world: A team of reporters follows the path of plastic recycling for 3sat with a detective flair.
Frankfurt – The disturbing images have acquired a sad rate of habit: plastic on beaches and river banks, entire rubbish carpets in the oceans, plastic particles in the organs of humans and animals.
For a long time, disposable plastic products have been and are still being made. Disposable pens, disposable lighters, toothbrushes. And packaging again and again. The supermarket shelves are full of it. Liquid goods in plastic bottles, food, especially so-called convenience food in plastic containers. But plastic is also hidden: paper on the outside, plastic coating on the inside.
“The dirty business with plastic” (3sat): An ignored problem
Plastic is not degradable. Fifty years ago it was already well known, as an old film report shows. In a survey, consumers acknowledged their convenience. Better to throw away than to carry the containers back and forth.
Manufacturers and dealers have now created take-back systems to calm their conscience. But what happens to the plastic after it plopps into the collection container in the supermarket?
The authors Isabelle Ducret and Wilfred Rebetez investigated this question. Partly with detective methods. At the beginning of their 53-minute contribution, they first point out the problem: There are an abundance of types of plastic. Separation and recycling is correspondingly complicated, if not impossible. This is done commercially, sorting by hand would be uneconomical. The same applies to further processing into granules, a cycle solution. Another possibility: residue-free combustion with simultaneous heat combustion.
“The dirty business with plastic” (3sat): Where the garbage goes
A Swiss food chain requires its disposal partner to deliver used plastic to a company with a state-of-the-art sorting facility, where recycling would be guaranteed. Far less plastic waste is registered there than would be expected.
Now the detective comes into play. PE, detergent and shampoo bottles are provided with small transmitters. And they tell the team that the plastic waste is being transported across the border to Germany and France. And the journey is far from over there.
The team has to get on a plane to track down the plastic export destinations. They are in the Far East. In Indonesia, the Swiss meet the biologist and environmental activist Prigi Arisandi. He founded the non-governmental organization Ecoton and is fighting his country’s plastic imports.
To the broadcast
“The dirty business with plastic”, August 17th, 10:55 pm, 3sat
For demonstration and analysis purposes, he bought a truckload of illegally imported plastic waste and dumped it in his garden. The origin can be read from the prints and labels. All of them are European countries.
What is carelessly disposed of in this country with economic rather than ecological weight endangers human lives in Indonesia and elsewhere.
And switching to paper packaging also has its pitfalls, as the film also makes clear. (Harald Keller)
