With only 9% of annual plastic waste recycled, the myth that we can recycle our way out of a mounting plastic pollution crisis doesn't add up.

Mbongeni Buthelezi takes recycling to the extreme. He "paints" with plastic. For his work, he uses plastic waste, cuts it into pieces and applies it to canvas with a heat gun, creating surfaces with changing colors.

Ethopian entrepreneur Kidist Tesfaye challenges pollution by producing ecofriendly bags out of paper and fabrics.

Malawian activist Gloria Majiga-Kamoto's efforts helped push the country's government to enforce a ban on thin plastics in 2019. And she hasn't stopped there. Improving national waste management is next on her agenda.

Kinshasa, a megalopolis of at least 12 million people, is known for its heaps of rubbish and rivers covered with plastic bottles. The Clean Plast company collects, processes, and recycles all types of plastic waste in the Democratic Republic of Congo with the aim of cleaning up the city.

By 2025, the fast-food chain aims to "drastically" cut plastic in Happy Meal toys worldwide. More-sustainable toys could be made from cardboard and recycled materials, the company says.

As Ivorian artist Aristide Kouame combs the beach dragging a trash bag of waterlogged flip-flops, he is aware other beachgoers in the commercial capital Abidjan think he is a desperate trader or a madman.

Facilities to encourage visitors to avoid the use of single use plastics are installed by several NGOs and the municipality at the Ayia Triada beach in Paralimni. The beach is now equipped with a water station for cold, filtered and free water. It includes an area for smokers and signs with information on how the visitors can become part of the solution, not the problem are also found at selected points.

South Korea is boosting efforts to recycle plastics in the country. At special centres, used PET bottles are recycled and transformed into products such as clothes, food containers, and cosmetic bottles.

It is the largest and most beautiful beach in Lagos, but also the dirtiest: at Lighthouse, plastic washed up by the sea piles up on the sand. Faced with what looks like an ecological disaster, a group of Lagossians have come together to clean the beach.

It's Christmas Day and following a year which has been harrowing for so many, we've decided to look back at the good news of 2020. We begin in Uganda, where a plastics company that specialises in recycling switched from making building materials to face shields to help hospitals. We also go to Benin, where the closure of the border with Nigeria has led to a push for more locally produced food, some of it on rooftops. And our correspondent in DR Congo looks back at how an NGO is helping Ebola survivors turn their lives around.

Waste To Wealth: Plastic often recycled into pillows, mattresses