Is the recycling system broken? 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgina.

Sorry I was late today, Georgina.

I'd forgotten to do the recycling

bins out before the rubbish

collection this morning. I seem to have

more and more plastic packaging

each week! Actually,

that's the topic of our programme.

With more and more household waste

being either incinerated

- that's burned - or being buried

underground, we'll be asking - is

the recycling system

broken?

China used to accept 55% of the world's

plastic and paper scrap - another

word for unwanted

waste - or in other words, rubbish.

That included waste sent over from

Britain. But in 2018

it stopped taking any more.

Other countries like Indonesia and

Vietnam took over China's waste

processing role. But

they too are now sending much

of the scrap back, arguing it is

contaminated and it is

harming their own environments.

This has created major problems for

countries in the West who traditionally

relied on others

to process their recycling waste.

And the problem isn't going away.

In fact we are creating more

household waste than

ever. So here's my quiz question.

On average, how many kilograms of

household waste were

generated per person in the UK

last year? Was it:

a) 280 kg, b) 480 kg or c) 680 kg?

That sounds like a lot of waste!

I'll say a) 280 kg.

OK. We'll find out later if you were right.

Although nowadays people

are recycling more,

the use of plastic isn't decreasing at the

same rate. The BBC

World Service's programme

The Inquiry spoke to Roland Geyer,

a professor at the University of

California about the

current situation.

There's been a real raise

in consciousness which is fantastic

and I'm really glad that

now it seems the public at large is really

interested in this issue and appalled and

wants to do something about it, wants

to change it. But at the same time

I don't see yet any

real action that would make things better

because while all of this is happening the

virgin plastic industry is actually

increasing its production capacity.

Workers who process recycling are often

exposed to dangerous waste materials

which can harm

them. Professor Geyer says there

has been a raise in consciousness

about this problem

- meaning that people are being

told about an unfair situation with

the aim of asking

them to help change it. Now, professor

Geyer is an American and

he uses 'raise' as a noun.

The main problem comes from

virgin plastic - original, unused plastic

containers. These

are made directly from fossil fuels like

crude oil or natural gas - major sources

of carbon

dioxide and climate change.

But consciousness raising of this issue

is having an impact. The public

at large - meaning

most people in the world, rather than just

some of them - are concerned

about the increase

in plastic waste and want

to do something to help.

However, it's not always easy to know

what the best way to help is.

Another expert, Professor Monic Sun,

believes that focusing only

on recycling may not be

the best idea. She conducted

psychological experiments to find out

more about peoples'

attitudes to recycling...

..and surprisingly found that if people

know recycling is an option they

tend to use more

resources. They reduce any guilty feelings

by telling themselves that the material will

be recycled anyway.

We have the slogan of 'Reduce, Reuse

and Recycle' and the priority should

be exactly that - reduce

and reuse is better than recycling. And the

cost of recycling is often not emphasised

enough. People perceive recycling

to be great but there's actually

significant labour and

material costs associated with recycling.

Professor Sun mentions 'Reduce, Reuse

and Recycle' as a useful

slogan - a short, easily

remembered phrase, often used to

promote an idea, in this case

that we should all do what

we can to protect the environment.

But while protecting the planet is

a common goal, recycling in itself may

not be so important.

It's better to reduce and reuse

than recycle, so these two objectives

should be emphasised

- highlighted as being

especially important.

Do you remember my quiz question?

I asked you how many kilograms

of waste the average

British person generated last year.

I reckoned it was a) 280 kg.

That would be bad enough, but

the real answer is b) 480 kg.

Multiply that by the UK population

of 66 million and you start to see

the size of the problem!

Today we've been talking about the

problems associated with

recycling scrap - another

word for rubbish.

Western countries used to send their

rubbish to China for recycling

but this caused issues

for the local environment. Some groups

raised consciousness about

the problem - made people

aware of the situation to encourage

them to help change it.

The public at large - most people in the

world - are now aware of the need

to 'Reduce, Reuse

and Recycle', the slogan - or short,

memorable phrase - used by

environmentalists to spread

their message.

A related problem is the increase

of virgin plastic - original, unused

plastic made from

fossil fuels. Recycling is unable

to keep pace with virgin plastic

production, so instead

reducing and reusing plastic should be

emphasised - highlighted as being

especially important.

And that's all from us. Bye for now.

Bye.