a big pile of plastic garbage

How America’s recycled plastic is poisoning Malaysia

Full Episode

Plastic waste piled outside an illegal recycling factory in Jenjarom, Kuala Langat, Malaysia, Oct. 14, 2018.

Lai Seng Sin/TPX Images of the Day/Reuters 

In the past year, heaps of plastic filth have piled up in parts of the Asian tropics. The World’s Patrick Winn joined forces with Jamie Hopkins of the Center for Public Integrity to report this story from both California and Malaysia, where the good intentions of American recyclers can end up in massive piles of burning trash. Plus, anger over a deadly Grenfell Tower apartment fire in London two years ago has hardly dissipated. Also, the US embraces the spelling Kyiv over Kiev, a spelling and pronunciation that hews closer to the Ukrainian language rather than Russian.

In This Episode

Uganda prepares for another Ebola outbreak
Europe works around us sanctions on Iran
Remembering Grenfell Tower
Crackdown in Hong Kong
a big pile of plastic garbage
America’s grungy ‘recycled’ plastic is creating wastelands in Asia
Special Coverage
What’s happening to all that plastic?
A man sits in front of two computer monitors.
Internet ‘deepfakes’ threaten truth and reality
Special Coverage
US officially changes spelling of Ukraine’s capital to Kyiv