Sugar Plastic - Earthrise, Aljazeera English

I co-produced and presented this film discovering a sweeter, greener alternative to plastic, made from sugar beet waste. Every year hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic are produced to meet our growing appetite for the material. Plastic is everywhere - and it is choking not just the land but our marine life too. So a natural alternative made from sugar beet waste may just be the answer to our destructive love affair with plastic. A company in Italy called Bio-on has found that bacteria that feed off sugar beet waste can be manipulated to create a biodegradable alternative to plastic. I went to Bologna, Italy, to see whether this bioplastic could offer a solution to a growing environmental problem. Earthrise is an awarded environmental show broadcast on Aljazeera English.