Garbage by type but why is only 20 percent of Plastic Waste recycled. Lessons but everybody the politicians say they cant expect businesses to do it any to me. And Plastic Waste is a big business in germany and around the world its having a negative impact on peoples lives and on the environment. That is was a womans bit of that its a real cause for concern over this material has been affecting soil composition for at least several decades on a global scale its not a pleasant thought. Going through the dog. Why cant we get rid of Plastic Waste. For this report we visited several locations around germany where a lot of plastic is used farms for example across the country a total of more than 70000. 00 tons of plastic sheeting covers the crops. About 20 percent of the countrys farmland is used to grow asparagus more than 20000. 00 hectares. Close to one folks runs 180. 00 hectare asparagus and strawberry farm on the outskirts of cologne the. Up to 180 people work here depending on the season. Like many asparagus farmers folks uses plastic sheeting to speed up crop growth and increase productivity. He supplies asparagus to a number of major retailers. And their plastic there is all the shooting is back on one side and white on the other we use the backside when its cold out. But it was 26 degrees or so over the weekend so we switched to the white side. The sheeting forms a series of many tunnels over the crop. For tunnels act like a greenhouse to make the sauna bit warmer its a lot of work to get asparagus ready to harvest early in the year. Its the 1st paragraph season used to begin in may and. But now we start in march. And the plastic sheeting helps us to do that. If the road. Folks has been using the sheeting for several years now. He says he disposes of it properly and that can be expensive. He has a similar sheets to protect his strawberry crops and those materials must be disposed of separately. About 80 percent of all the plastic sheeting used on german farms is incinerated after the crops are harvested. These sheets are widely used around the country. Technically speaking they are classified as packaging which makes up the largest share of german Plastic Waste. Folks says hes seen no evidence to indicate that the sheeting has introduced micro plastic fragments into the soil. Or years of plastic in the army its we havent carried out specific tests for micro plastics weve been successfully growing crops there for years and if there were any problems with the soil wed know about it. So i dont see any reason to test for micro plastics. And no more than that in the. Extensive research into the dangers posed by micro plastics only began recently no one actually knows how much of this material has gotten into the soil and water is. One of the pioneers of that research is professor mathias clearly a biologist at the Free University of berlin. Clearly it is an expert on plant and sonal ecology and has spent the past several years studying the effects of micro plastics on the environment. Its midlevel in bushwick does this is what this material can get into the soil in a variety of different ways for example as trace substances in the atmosphere. They can also be produced by the wear and tear on car tires. Or it can come from materials used in agriculture such as compost or plastic sheeting. Thats how micro plastics get into the surface of the soil but they will have no negative effect until they actually become incorporated into the soil itself that we wanted to find out how that happens. How does this process work. Must be. Really good and his staff conducted a series of experiments that involved earthworms which are commonly found in soil and feed on organic matter this is the vote on monday and. Im a soil biologist so my 1st choice was to use earthworms when. They interact with the soil in various ways for example by consuming it and excluding waste material and by building burrows and through our experiments we confirmed that they can bring micro plastics into the soil. Into the stew for some girl and try to date the lake and his assistant so studying plastic 5 herself michael plastics come in various shapes and can affect the soil in different ways. Longer fibers can cause more damage than shorter ones. The team are using a wind for idea fibrous to make sure that the test results are as accurate as possible. Because design the plastic team on the term micro plastics covers a wide range of substances. Just think about all the plastic items that you have around the house all the different shapes and colors and physical properties. Today were working with polyester fibers. And weve done some experiments with poly acrylics as well. As micro plastics can also come in a sort of how to reform like this polypropylene. And they have a much different effect on the soil than fibers do with. The phones and. We asked professor really how micro plastics affect the soil. Of st joes so oil consists of various components that constantly combine with each other and then break up with we found that the soil aggregates become more unstable in the presence of micro plastic fibers and thats a real problem because if the soil aggregates are unstable and start breaking down it can lead to soil erosion. Of the. Wouldnt these aggregates play an Important Role in storing carbon in the soil. That when they become unstable the organic Component Parts can be composed more easily and that could release Carbon Dioxide into the environment like its just the suits might be done deal was filling. So the presence of micro plastics in soil could increase c o 2 emissions which can have a negative effect on the environment. And once the plastic gets into the soil it stays there. Im worried about the fact that theres nothing we can do to remove these micro plastics substances from the soil and that we cant break them down either. And im absolutely convinced that this is the case. And its a real cause for concern. This material has been affecting soil composition for at least several decades on a global scale. And its not a pleasant thought. In april 2900 nearly 20000 people took part in the hamburg marathon and their Running Shoes left trace elements of micro plastics all over the streets. The material was spread around by wind and rain and a lot of it got into the soil or the city drainage system Treatment Plants can filter out only a fraction of the micro plastics that turned up in runoff water. And during the race the runners who used an estimated 160000 disposable cups. City sanitation crews managed to pick up all of them but the cuts were not recycled. Or happy. About the boredom ive got 15 or 20 people on the job here with truck mounted sweepers but most of the stuff that theyre picking up is drinking cups we just hold everything to the incinerator at a take is days to sort it all for recycling and thats just not possible target. In fact about one half of all of our plastic ends up being burned. Them out as mine are after its amazing how much plastic people use. And it just ends up in the trash as extreme as a plastic classic is a problem not just for me at home but also here at the marathon with all those disposable cups the runners use them out on the course and also after the race. After laughed like a long. Shore its a problem. All the stuff you buy in the shops is wrapped in plastic. And the last thing you buy produce at the market and its covered in plastic you just throw it away. I know we have to do more to cut back on Plastic Packaging. But plastic materials are cheap to produce in germany because the government exempts the fossil fuels that are used to make them from energy taxes some critics say that has to change. Is it what the fuels are exempted if theyre used for commercial purposes not heating every year the federal government publishes a report on the subsidies that damage the environment the most right theyve calculated that this one costs about 1500000000 euros. Thats why its so cheap to produce Plastic Products its use id like to see recycling play a bigger role in this process. But if the Big Companies can cover their cost by using that option. Then theyll still stick with a system thats now in place. So im going to name one its made a nearby to construct. So in germany its cheaper to produce new plastic then it is to recycle it. But experts say there are several good alternatives to this process you have the Hamburg University of technology ive heard so cast in kuta and some of her students study in various kinds of packaging to see whether it can be recycled. Today theyll be looking at common everyday items including shower gel chewing gum and cleaning products. People in germany recycle about 75 percent of their carbon that some kinds of packaging simply cannot be reused. With an infant was ok lets get this stuff sorted. Theres a lots of different products ok if. You know this yet the students cant find any information on these products that sense whether they can be recycled that would be a helpful detail for consumers. And thats not required by law right. If youre familiar of them. I just open the lid on this container and under it theres another lead. So the 1st one is just for decoration. I think they could have done all that differently. And he finishes more for me because in his lead if it doesnt matter to me whether my shower gel comes in a black package in kind of a. Plastic container shouldnt be made of materials that are hard to recycle. I mean its. As it does its theres one made of p. T. Thermal plastic polymer thats pretty easy to recycle recycle and the container is transparent which means the sorting machines can spot it quickly. Just the label peels off easily to recycle plastic and yet you can. So much invest but its always good to find a product like that itll help us to find a solution to this package comes in the sleeve its also made of p. T. But not the same kind as the container so we cant recycle them together. Like. It is lined with cement and only experts can figure out the complexities of product packaging. A Research Assistant at the university examines a container of ground beef. Yeah. Theres no label here that tells you what kind of plastic it is just from constructors it signs on we analyze the container in the lab and found out it has several layers johns and. Those extra layers help to protect the product from alter violet light and they also make the package more durable because. Its really humid and they wont be able to process it at the recycling plant because its not proper plastic so itll end up in the Energy Recovery process lets and based on seems. Useful in this container is made of polypropylene or p. P. P. P. It says so right here and. P. P. Is quite easy to recycle and its a sheet but its got a layer of dark foil here so the sorting machines will toss it out right away a lot you. Can on that light side and its got an aluminum lid and if you toss it in your recycling bin without removing the lid on it they wont be able to process it as proper plastic and its good stuff which i could. That kind as if he does the. The companies that make these plastics dont tell consumers anything about them so all of my students are environmentally conscious and even they cant distinguish among all the different kinds. That the producers or the supermarkets dont provide any information so bomb lock them. And they keep coming out with new kinds of packaging so its hard to keep up with all of it. The tradition of a. Stretch if its awful i try to find out as much as i can but every state does it differently so even if you make an effort you cant get a lot of the information that you need so its moot. That the fee was on top as a mature i was well i certainly tossed a lot of stuff in the wrong recycling bin. And all tooth brush or something. As it doesnt test i once took an online test about recycling you know like got a lot of the answers wrong but i try to do what i can. Make sure that still. This is the only a Waste Disposal company and hamburg they process a lot of garbage here. Theyd like to be able to recycle more of this material but they cant mostly for technical reasons. Every year in germany an estimated 14000000. 00 tons of plastics end up at facilities like this only about 10 percent of that total comes from recycled plastics. Were good at sorting our Plastic Waste but why cant we use more of it that it does begin down the argument part of the reason is that the end. Correct technology we used to identify different kinds of material cant catch everything for example if a package is black the sensor wont pick it up because the color black doesnt reflect light. Up so if we cant see it we cant sort it. And this bottle for example is made of high density polyethylene so it should be easy to recycle since the plastic is black the sensor wont see it and it wont get into the system and cries of towards a printer for just reciting off to. Delia is part of germanys dual system Waste Disposal program under the system consumers can place packaging material in a special bin and it will be picked up by private disposal companies. The Packaging Industry pays a fee to finance that part of the program. The governments 2900 target for recycling plastic materials was about 60 percent but the actual number is closer to about 20 percent. Some say that the way the figures are calculated is misleading. Yet. Lets say 75 percent of the Plastic Waste goes into the Recovery Process after sorting that number drops to 50 percent and of that total only 20 percent is actually recycled. Thats not good for germanys reputation as a world leader in recycling its unfit in recycling vent my stuff though actually and. The governments recycling data also includes Plastic Waste that is shipped overseas for disposal sometimes to countries where Environmental Standards are comparatively low. As gap in the linen on finding them some countries especially china would use low quality recycled waste in the manufacture of cheap products and they could sort the material by hand. We dont do that in europe because its just too expensive. So if there was no market in germany for that low quality waste wed ship it to china malaysia india or turkey. On the indian and he took it and. 2 of the worlds leading importers of recyclable waste china and malaysia have now banned all shipments of this material so lot of german plastic garbage ends up in turkey. Weve come to the port city of messing to find out more. Turkeys plastics Production Industry depends heavily on imports of Plastic Waste because unlike in germany its cheaper in turkey to recycle it then it is to produce new plastic. Independent contractors collect recyclable material on the street and take it to collection points. An estimated 500000 people now earn their living by collecting Plastic Waste. But business has been bad recently many of the people who pick up this material say that theyre not making any money. We talk to some of them to find out why. Then you could lose says that imports of presorted Plastic Waste have ruined his business hes been doing this for 25 years and things have never been this bad. All over the world did away. With. Leo. Turkey imported nearly 440000 tons of waste in 2018 most of it came from germany and britain. You know an obvious one other little let up. Future. Bob want to check i want you to. Be somebody. We sell one ton of this material for 1500. 00 turkish lira or about 240. 00 euros imported waste sells for 1000. 00 lire or about 160. 00 euros so the recycling Companies Make more money which a lot of. Imports of Plastic Waste are put prove recyclers and plastics manufacturers but not for the independent contractors. Then he says that 40 people used to work at this collection point. But now there are just 20. They were huge like animals we cant sell what we pick up because of the imports. Business is so bad that we may have to shut this place down and find other ways to earn a living. We just had a big discussion about that. This is a huge problem for me and my family and for everyone that works here. Well the last 2 or 3 months have been really tough. The recyclers tell us that the prices keep falling because so much Plastic Waste is coming in from foreign countries. Turkey is europes 2nd largest producer of plastics after germany but the country cant keep up with all the Plastic Waste that people throw away. Only a fraction of it is incinerated because of the high cost. Of a lot of garbage ends up in dumps like this one located near the city of other no northwest of marcin. Were not allowed to film inside the facility. In this residential area some people dump their garbage illegally. The exact rate of recycling in turkey is not known. To find out more about that we talk to young bruce at all who the president of the Turkish Plastics Industry Foundation and c. E. O. Of a big Plastics Company and altogether there are number one i dont have such a number i dont know because the other one is very hard to find because the beautiful ones if you talk about the white goods you know the good the construction its that easy to find some numbers statistics to say that even in the ministries i couldnt have find the numbers unfortunately because the system also consists of this street collectors you cannot get the real statistical amount of the use of. Local recyclers seem sensitive to publicity none of them allowed us to film at their site. One company near atlanta that processes only german garbage let us film but didnt want its name used. Separate collected high quality waste is one of the important issues for the plastic in the street for sort of political enemy and this closed loop systems already we are in turkey trying to make more separate collection as i said we want to increase this part of the business but there is still a gap why because turkish Plastic Industry is very big and