Turning waste to wealth

Meet the planet heroes fighting plastic pollution and poverty.

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Communities around the world are turning plastic waste into a way of earning money and supporting their families. Litter pickers collect plastic, which keeps their local environment clean, and they sell the waste to companies that recycle it to make products and packaging.

The plastic problem

Plastic is a wonder material. It is strong, flexible, light, can be shaped easily and is cheap to produce. The downside is that it is incredibly difficult to get rid of. Plastic can take 500 years to break down in nature -and it never disappears. Instead, the material just keeps getting smaller and smaller.

This is bad for our planet, especially our seas. The ocean is home to millions of animals, provides fish to feed coastal communities, helps to control the climate and even creates half of the oxygen we breathe.