In 2020, around 40 per cent of the plastic waste that the United Kingdom disposed of abroad was sent to Turkey. There, however, instead of being processed for recycling, the plastic was dumped along roadsides, in fields, in waterways, or burned. This was revealed by a report from Greenpeace, entitled Trashed: how the Uk is still dumping plastic waste on the rest of the world, which demonstrates how Turkey has become the destination of choice for British plastic waste.

What the Greenpeace report on UK plastic says

In its latest investigation, Greenpeace monitored ten waste collection sites in southern Turkey, where plastic bags and packaging from UK supermarkets and retailers were recorded. Among the waste examined, the container of a Covid-19 lateral flow test was also found, demonstrating that the waste shipments under investigation were less than a year old. According to the report, more than half of the plastic produced in Britain is sent abroad, often to countries without the infrastructure needed to recycle it properly.

Greenpeace UK @GreenpeaceUK

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What’s the UK government’s plastic policy? Dump it on other countries! Less than 10% of our plastic recycling is actually recycled in the UK.
The rest is sent overseas where it’s often burned or dumped, fuelling health and wildlife emergencies.

RT to expose. #Wasteminster 1/5

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In 2020, the United Kingdom exported 688,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, at a daily average of 1.8 million kilograms. Only 486,000 tonnes were recycled "at home". One of the British's preferred partners for disposing of this type of material was China, but since it banned the import of many types of plastic waste in 2017, Turkey has taken its place as the main recipient. As a result, UK exports to the country rose from 12,000 tonnes in 2016 to more than 209,000 in 2020. But what Greenpeace activists found in Turkey was a chilling scene: plastic waste from major supermarkets had been dumped, burned, piled into heaps and left to spill into rivers and the sea.

Waste is "an environmental threat, not an economic opportunity"

Many wealthy countries — Italy included — routinely send recyclable waste abroad because it is cheaper than disposing of it at home and helps meet recycling targets. Every day, it is estimated that around 241 lorries of plastic waste arrive in Turkey from across Europe, that is 20 times more than the amount imported in 2016. In 2020, the countries that received the largest exports of plastic waste from the United Kingdom were Turkey, Malaysia and Poland. But now Greenpeace has called on the British government to pass an environment act and ban all plastic waste exports to countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Not least because, beyond the environmental impact, according to Interpol, there is an explosion in the illegal waste trade.

Greenpeace UK @GreenpeaceUK

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According to the UN, plastic waste kills up to 1 million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals, marine turtles and countless fish each year. As the 2nd biggest producer of plastic per person in the world, the UK must take real steps to cut plastic production. 3/5

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"As this new evidence shows," said Nihan Temiz Ataş of Greenpeace, "plastic waste coming from the United Kingdom to Turkey represents an environmental threat, not an economic opportunity. Uncontrolled imports only add to the problems that already exist in Turkey's recycling system." According to UK and European Union regulations, plastic waste should not be exported to other countries unless there is a likelihood that it will be recycled. Unfortunately, however, Turkey's recycling rate stands at 12 per cent, the lowest of any OECD member.