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Six Minute English

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Hello, this is six minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Georgina.

Sorry I was late today, Georgina. I'd forgotten to take 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 wastes 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 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 kilograms, B, 480 kilograms or C 680 kilograms.

That sounds like a lot of waste. I'll say a 280 kilograms. Okay 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 Services Program, The Inquiry, spoke to Roland Gaya, a professor at the University of California about the current situation.

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