Waste Watchers

This week Hands On takes a closer look at a very messy business - recycling.

Recycling not only helps save the environment but it can also be a good money-spinner for those involved.

So why pay more if it costs less to recycle? And why buy leather if recycled rubber will do? This month's 'Hands On' travels around the world and finds out how innovative recycling ideas can be as good for the pocket as they are for the environment.

Pulp Friction, Italy

For years algae has clogged the waterways of Venice - Italy's much-loved tourist destination. Now the algae, thousands of tons of it, is threatening the fragile ecosystem of the canals - cutting water oxygen levels, killing fish and making an awful stink.

But help is at hand from Clemente Nicolucci, an environmental scientist working at a local paper factory, who has developed an eco-friendly answer to Venice's smelly problem. Algae paper.

The paper, made from algal flour, recycled paper and wood cellulose is not only acid free, chlorine free and completely recyclable - it's also helping to reduce the quantity of trees needed to make paper at the factory. For every 50,000 tons of algae used, 30,000 tons of living trees are saved from the chop. Using algae to make paper means that every day 20 trees and 40 full tanks of petrol are saved.

For Clemente Nicolucci, algae paper is only the beginning. For him the world's waste isn't a problem - it's a challenge.

For more in-depth information from the Hands On team, visit their website.

Inner Style, UK

Next, Hands On travels to the UK and discovers how the fashion industry is playing a part in recycling discarded rubber...

In a small workshop an innovative designer, Julie McDonagh, fashions around eight handbags a day from tyre inner tubes. Her inspiration originated from a trip to Egypt where local people use inner tubes as water carriers.

Back in the UK, inner tubes are rarely recycled - almost 70% are burnt or buried. But if Julie's idea catches on, more discarded rubber products could be saved and made into one-of-a-kind designer gear. And that's not all. Rubber is so versatile and hard wearing that it could make the perfect alternative for many other products. Already Julie is extending her range to include CD covers, mobile phone covers and vases.

For more in-depth information from the Hands On team, visit their website.

Waste Busters, Karachi, Pakistan

Karachi is struggling under the weight of an ever-growing mountain of waste. Just fifty years ago this city was home to half a million people, today 10 million people generate 7000 tons of rubbish every day and the Karachi Municipal Council just can't cope - managing to remove only half of the rubbish from the streets.

But a new partnership between private and public sectors could be the answer.

Three years ago Waste Busters set up a low cost door-to-door waste collection service in Lahore. After three years more than 12,000 households were involved in the programme. Now the scheme is being repeated in Karachi - to great success.

In time, Waste Busters hope that the service will expand into new neighbourhoods and be able to join forces with the 40,000 or so people in Karachi who scavenge for a living.

For more in-depth information from the Hands On team, visit their website.

Cashing In, Norway

There are roughly 700 billion containers currently in circulation around the world. And, as demand for drinks increases, so do the mountains of plastic cartons, cans and bottles. In Europe less than 20% of containers are recycled but in Norway almost 90% are. So what makes Norway so eco-friendly?

Norwegians are encouraged to deposit their containers in local TOMRA machines. Located at supermarkets, the 'Tomra' is a reverse vending machine which dispenses coupons for containers. Coupons can be cashed for money or used for discounts in supermarkets. This way, the manufacturers argue, consumers are encouraged to recycle their containers - and rewarded for doing so.

For more in-depth information from the Hands On team, visit their website.

Vacutug, Kenya

The Kebira shanty town, home to more than three quarters of a million people, lies just outside Kenya's capital of Nairobi. Like all unplanned settlements, Kebira suffers from a total lack of town planning and its sanitation system is almost non-existent.

In Kebira, each inhabitant shares one lavatory with a hundred others. None flush. Most overflow and people often give up using them. Added to the filth, these conditions put the inhabitants at risk from typhoid, cholera and diarrhea.

But a new innovative machine called Vacutug may solve Kebira's problems.

Operated just like a vacuum cleaner, Vacutag draws the contents of the latrine into a sealed container - which can later be emptied into the main sewer for hygienic disposal.

But one Vacutug is not enough. Until there are more, demand for its services will exceed supply. And the dangers to health will continue.

Vacutug must go forth and multiply.

For more in-depth information from the Hands On team, visit their website.