The Secret World Of Your Rubbish S2

Format

4 x 60'

Production company

Knickerbockerglory

Year of production

2020

Commissioning channels

Channel 5

Availability

31/07/2020

Every year, across the globe, we throw away a colossal 2 billion tonnes of waste. Whether it’s our lunch leftovers; heating our homes; or the goods we buy – everything we use eventually ends up as rubbish. But what we chuck away, has got to go somewhere….

In this fascinating series we uncover a vast, hidden world of waste and meet the army of workers who go to extraordinary lengths to tidy up after us. Whether they’re operating huge machines or hand-sorting on the front line – their hard work is helping prevent our landfills from overflowing, and turning our trash into treasure.

Entertaining, informative. Available for GLOBAL RECYCLING DAY March 2023

Episode One

Episode 1

The aptly named 'Crapper and Sons' run a landfill site where they oversee the delivery and disposal of over 200 trucks of waste a day.

And what happens to your old fridge when it’s past it’s sell-by date?

Episode Two

Episode 2

The rubbish footprint we all leave behind us goes far beyond what we chuck in our bins. Every time we switch on an appliance or light we have a hand in creating the most dangerous rubbish on Earth….nuclear waste.

6 million cups of coffee are sold in Stansted every year. But all that coffee creates mountains of waste – 150 tonnes of coffee grounds are binned at the airport every year. But, instead of going to landfill it’s being turned into coffee briquettes which can be used to fuel domestic word burners.

Episode Three

Episode 3

With landfill in decline, the demand for another way to get rid of our rubbish has really hotted up. Our thirst for fast fashion means we chuck out hundreds of thousands of tonnes of clothing every year, but in Glasgow a canny father and son team are cashing in on our waste.

And at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, staff are bracing themselves for one of the noisiest and messiest nights of the year. 8,000 metal heads will hammer their way through thousands of pints as they mosh to the music of their favourite band.

Episode Four

Episode 4

In the last episode of the series, travel to the Final Frontier of rubbish collection….
Since the 1950’s, humans have been firing objects into space, most of which are still up there. There are hundreds of thousands of items orbiting Earth at 17,000 mph which, if they were to collide with a satellite, could do catastrophic damage...

And the fascinating journey that the glass you throw into your local bottle bank takes on its way to being reborn as a brand new jam jar.

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