In recent years, Turkey has become the new global leader in plastic waste recycling. However, today, as the country is overwhelmed with European waste, numerous NGOs are warning about the serious environmental and health risks posed by this development. The most vulnerable refugees are the first to be affected, forced to work under very difficult conditions in processing plants.
Turkey ,"New Trash Bin of Europe" According to the newspaper Le Monde, has increased its plastic waste imports by nearly 1,200% between 2016 and 2020. Each year, the country recovers over 450,000 tonnes of debris coming from the European Union (EU), a figure that continues to rise. Europe currently outsources nearly half of its plastic waste to Turkey, primarily because, since 2018, China has banned the import of foreign trash.
Since 2004, the EU has increased by nearly 75%. its exports of all types of waste to non-EU countries—amounting to nearly 32.7 million tons of trash annually—of which 13.7 million tons are sent to Turkey. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has repeatedly warned about the harmful environmental and health impacts associated with plastic waste processing in Anatolia.
Adana, the "capital" of plastic recycling
According to the Turkish Ministry of Environment, there are over 1,800 recycling facilities in the country. Adana, a southern city with around 2 million inhabitants, has become the new hub for plastic recycling. It is located near the Mediterranean port of Mersin, where nearly half of these waste imports arrive.
Before the rise of the sector, the outskirts of Adana's industrial area were mainly vegetable fields. Today, recycling factories have taken over the land, a trend that shows no signs of fading in the coming years. Turkey still lacks sufficient resources to manage its own waste, the price of oil has made the reuse of recycled materials more profitable for plastic producers, and the EU aims to recycle 65% of its household waste by 2035. For Turkey, recycling European waste represents a financial boon that it cannot afford to let slip away.
Refugees and the Environment: Collateral Victims
To achieve lower production costs, recycling companies rely on immigrant labor. Of the 4 million refugees in Turkey, 3.6 million are Syrians. According to Amnesty Turkey, only 1% of them manage to obtain a work permit, while the rest work informally. While some receive the minimum wage in Turkey, others, like Ali, interviewed by Amnesty International, survive on just five euros a day, barely enough to afford food.
According to him, his former colleagues were almost all children, " They were eleven or twelve years old, came for a few days, and then we didn’t see them anymore."According to him, most people only stay for a few days: " They can't stand the stench. It damages the lungs." ".
Indeed, the recycling process is highly polluting: the waste is first shredded, then washed, melted at high temperatures, and finally turned into pellets. This process releases numerous toxic substances that infiltrate the respiratory tracts of the workers, a fortiori because many companies do not provide them with any protection system. HRW reported facilities without windows or ventilation systems, where thick smoke fills the entire space and coats the floor with a black, oily dust. Ahmet testifies : " "When I inhaled it, I felt like my lungs were compressed and under pressure." ". Today, even though he left his position several months ago, he still suffers from respiratory problems.
In the short term, lung problems are the most common symptoms. However, according to the scientific literature, chronic exposure to these substances can increase the risk of cancer and neurological disorders, as well as disrupt the reproductive system.
Unusable residues end up either burned in the canal of the industrial zone or in open dumps along the roads, according to reporters from the AFP. The packaging reveals the origin of the waste: British dog food boxes are found alongside plastic remnants from the frozen food giant Picard, while Swedish mineral water bottles pile up by the roadside. According to Ismail, a former employee of a processing company, this environmental disaster is due to factory owners not wanting to pay for waste disposal services.
A Problem of Transparency, Jurisdiction, and Consumption
The OECD has warned that if no action is taken, plastic production will triple by 2060, which would further entrench the sector in Turkey. While the country aims to be exemplary in waste sorting today, the NGO Greenpeace denounces the lack of " transparency and supervision " in the recycling sector. The Turkish Ministry of Environment has claimed to have conducted thousands of inspections and closed down around twenty non-compliant facilities in Adana, denying accusations of laxity. On the European Union side, the focus is often on future changes rather than the current legislative weaknesses. Several projects are underway, and stricter regulations are expected to be implemented: waste would only be exportable if there is a guarantee that... " the destination country has implemented environmentally sound management practices ", according to the official website of the European Council.. In the meantime, the EU continues to dump its waste en masse in Turkey.
For Sedat Gündogdu, a researcher at Cukurova University in Adana, suggests that the solution would be to abandon the "false" good idea of recycling and instead focus efforts on reducing plastic usage. As Europe experiences the rise of online shopping and widespread plastic use at all levels, there are currently no signs indicating a significant reduction in consumption.
Marc-Aurèle Barez
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