BBC World Service's "World Hacks": small ideas with big impacts for the better

The BBC World Service is one of the quiet forces for good on the planet - and here's a brief example of how they use their global reach to bring society-bettering ideas to every corner of it.

"World Hacks" is a multimedia domain (virals, podcasts, Facebook page and articles) which highlights innovative notions that improve life at an everyday level.

A classic example is this week's "a surprising new afterlife for chewing gum" - in which gum  is recycled into rubber products (eg, not on the sole of your shoe, but in your shoe). The gum is collected by a bright pink attachment to a standard street-bin - itself made from recycled gum - which makes the recycling easier. (Your blogger spotted one at the British Library today). 

Another features an app in Greece which is helping people donate their leftover medicines to those who can't afford to buy them. Since 2016 it has helped redistribute 13,000 boxes of drugs. Yet another tells the story of eleven countries planting a wall of trees from east to west across Africa, just under the southern edge of the Sahara desert, with the goal to bring the dry lands back to life.

We like this approach so much that we've created a new D.A. category - ingenuity. If you have any examples of hands-on, direct brilliance, that anyone can get involved with or handle, let us know.