Recycling is often cited as one of the easiest ways to make a difference to the environment. But does old plastic really get reprocessed into new? Guardian reporters around the world have been investigating what really happens to our waste. Also today: Bryan Mealer on a shocking spate of murders of black trans women in Texas

What happens to your plastic waste after you put it in your recycling bin? Rather than being whisked off to a local factory, to be transformed into pristine new materials, often it is shipped abroad where it is eventually burned or dumped.

The Guardian’s Erin McCormick, Jamie Fullerton and Sandra Laville have been investigating an industry that is far less virtuous than many would assume. They discover what actually happens to waste after it is exported. In Malaysia, where tonnes of plastic waste is sent from the US and Europe, illegally burned plastic has polluted towns with toxic fumes.

Also today: Bryan Mealer, in Texas, on a shocking spate of deaths of black trans women.