UK plastics sent for recycling in Turkey dumped and burned, Greenpeace finds

Investigation reveals that plastic waste coming from the UK to Turkey is an environmental threat, not an economic opportunity'

Turkey has become the latest destination for British plastic waste, which ends up dumped, burned or left to pollute the ocean, a Greenpeace investigation has found.

More than half of the plastic the British government says is being recycled are sent overseas, often to countries without the necessary infrastructure to do so. The UK exported 688,000 tonnes of discarded plastic packaging in 2020, a daily average of 1.8m kilos. Just 486,000 tonnes were recycled in the UK.