Every year the world produces 400 million tonnes of plastic – the same weight as all the humans on earth.Only a small proportion of this is recycled, and this isn’t proper recycling but “downcycling” – the new plastic is of a lower quality, meaning that almost all plastic eventually goes to waste.But now French company Carbios is using enzymes to break plastic down into its chemical building blocks – which can then be used to make high quality plastic again.So is plastic on the brink of becoming a resource like glass or aluminium, that you can keep on moulding and recycling again and again?Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: William Kremer Series producer: Jon Bithrey Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Penny Murphyemail: [email protected]

Millions of women around the world lack access to safe and hygienic menstrual products. But there are people trying to change that.We meet the British student who learned to sew in lockdown and started making reusable sanitary pads for refugees. She’s helped distribute tens of thousands of pads and is now training refugee women in Lebanon how to make money by sewing the pads themselves.We hear about a design project inspired by tea cups which has created an efficient way of washing reusable pads.And in India we meet the woman who is challenging the stigma around periods with a comic book that’s being read in thousands of schools around the country.Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Lorna Acquah Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Annie Gardiner Editor: Richard Vadonemail: [email protected]: Reya, a student in Beirut who is sewing period pads

In the farming community of Los Negros in rural Bolivia, the river is their life and livelihood. So when that river started to dry up, it made life very hard. They blamed the villages upstream for not looking after their precious water.This conflict could have turned ugly. But with the support of a local charity, what came out of it instead was a ground-breaking agreement. After years of negotiations, the town at the bottom of the river agreed to support the communities upstream to protect their forests and keep the river healthy.The idea is now the blueprint for water sharing agreements between communities across the continent.Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Jane Chambers Producer: Bob Howard Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Hal Haines Editor: Penny MurphyEmail: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.ukImage: Senor Rogelio Valverde sits by his water source

Heroin users in Scotland are being trained to spot when someone is about to overdose and to step in and help.The training – which includes lessons on how to use the antidote naloxone - is often led by people who have themselves been addicts.Taxi drivers and police officers are also being trained, and naloxone being widely distributed, as part of a push to save as many lives as possible.Reporter Craig Langran investigates whether the approach is working.Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: Craig Langran Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Annie Gardiner and Hal Haines Editor: Penny MurphyEmail: [email protected]: Wez, who trains heroin users how to administer naloxone

In the midst of a crisis, sometimes the solution you need isn’t obvious. Today we meet the inventors who found fascinating fixes amid the chaos and destruction of disasters. We visit the hospital that was painstakingly constructed inside a train, to treat Ukrainian civilians in a war zone. We follow a team in Fiji who have created a mobile workshop, designed to travel to remote villages after natural disasters and repair and make items on the spot. Finally we look at a medical robot that could soon treat injured people in places it’s too dangerous for human rescuers to enter. Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/Producer: Claire Bates Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Penny Murphy Picture: University of Sheffield AMRC