Plastic from the UK being dumped in Turkey according to Greenpeace

What happens to your plastic waste when you recycle it?

Well, a new report from the environmental charity Greenpeace has shown that some of it is dumped in countries like Turkey, Malaysia and Poland, and then burnt.

According to the research around 40% of the UK's plastic waste, that's around 210,000 tonnes, was shipped to Turkey last year. That's about the same as 55,000 hippos!

The charity said it checked 10 different locations in southern Turkey and found plastic bags and packaging from UK supermarkets and shops at all of them, as well as packaging for a coronavirus antigen test, showing that the waste was less than a year old.

Greenpeace has called on the government to 'take control' of the problem, and want them to ban plastic waste exports and reduce single-use plastic by 50% by 2025.

What actually happens when you recycle something?

According to the report, more than half of the plastic waste that the government says is recycled, is actually sent to other countries (or exported).

Around 50% of the plastic waste we export is made up of mixed plastic, styrene or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - materials that are not easily or widely recycled.

Last year around 688,000 tonnes of plastic waste were exported - that's an average of 1.8 million kilos a day - whilst only 486,000 tonnes were actually recycled in the UK, according to the Environment Agency's National Packaging Waste Database.

The countries that received the most plastic waste from the UK in 2020 were:

• Turkey received 209,642 tonnes - 39%

• Malaysia received 65,000 tonnes - 12%

• Poland received 38,000 tonnes - 7%

"Around 241 truckloads of plastic waste come to Turkey every day from across Europe and it overwhelms us." said Nihan Temiz Atas, biodiversity projects lead from Greenpeace Mediterranean, based in Turkey.

Under UK and EU rules, it is illegal to export plastic waste, unless it will be recycled or burnt in an energy-from-waste plant.

However, BBC reporters and Greenpeace have found evidence that plastic waste from the UK has been burnt at illegal rubbish sites in Turkey and Malaysia.

Why is this such a problem?

The illegal dumping of rubbish can cause lots of problems for the environment, such as polluting oceans and impacting the health of local people and wildlife.

Plastic waste, such as carrier bags, can be mistaken for food by some ocean creatures who might eat it and then can't digest it - meaning their stomachs can become full so they don't have room for actual food.

Each year, 100,000 animals in the sea are killed by plastic.

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Why has this happened, and what have other countries done about this?

The report suggests that when you take time to recycle packaging, it could still be ending up in landfill - like this - along with other household rubbish

Until January 2018, China accepted most of the world's plastic waste.

However, due to concerns about pollution, China announced that it would no longer be accepting recycled plastic scrap that was not 99.5% pure.

This meant that the amount of plastic waste accepted by China from the UK fell by a whopping 94%.

As a result of this, many of the world's countries, including the UK decided to send their plastic waste to other places instead, with Turkey, Malaysia and Poland accepting the majority.

However, now many of these countries are at breaking point, and have started to introduce bans and new rules on what they will accept.

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Last year, Malaysia's government sent back 150 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the countries they came from - 42 of which belonged to the UK.

The former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Yeo Bee Yin said the move was to ensure the South East Asian nation did not become "the garbage dump of the world".

In 2020 The Turkish government announced that a ban on importing many types of plastic waste would come into effect from 1 January 2021. This includes a ban on mixed plastics, as well as any plastics that have undergone 'mechanical treatment'.

As well as this, recycling factories in Turkey will now only accept half of their plastic waste from foreign imports, down from 80%.

What has the government said?

The government said that the UK is a "global leader in tackling plastic pollution".

"We are clear that the UK should handle more of its waste at home, and that's why we are committed to banning the export of plastic waste to non-OECD countries and clamping down on illegal waste exports - including to countries such as Turkey - through tougher controls." said the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

"Our proposals for extended producer responsibility for packaging, a plastic packaging tax and mandatory electronic waste tracking will boost recycling rates, reduce waste and cut crime."

What changes do Greenpeace want?

Greenpeace has said they want the UK government to use its powers to ban plastic waste exports by no later than 2025.

As well as this they want to use the Environment Bill to set official targets to reduce single-use plastic by 50% by 2025.

They also want to introduce a deposit return scheme, similar to the one used in Germany and Norway.

In Norway, the shopper pays a deposit on every bottle - the equivalent of 10p to 25p depending on size. Then when the bottle is empty, they post it into a special machine which gives them a coupon for the money that they have spent on the deposit.

This has led to 97% of plastic bottles being recycled- whereas in the UK, just over half of plastic bottles are recycled.