A new podcast series has found recycling centres in Turkey treating post-consumer plastic from the UK rely on refugees working in conditions so unsafe that ‘hundreds have died’.
According to the investigation, Afghan refugees working in Turkey’s recycling sector are facing widespread exploitation, and many live under constant threat of deportation, leaving them with little protection or agency over their working conditions.
Dan Cooke, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) Director of Policy, Communications & External Affairs, called the findings ‘highly concerning’ and a wake up call for all parties in the UK plastics value chain.
The three-part podcast series, Boy Wasted, is produced by the team behind the BBC’s investigative podcast, Buried, and published by the environmental news title ENDS Report and the Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer.
The podcast details how people working in recycling factories in Turkey endure dangerous conditions and are suffering fatal accidents at alarming rates while handling imported post-consumer plastic from the UK.
(The investigation) highlights the need to refocus on the crucial basics of human rights, health and safety, combating fraud, and resourcing effective enforcement…
Researchers from the workplace safety group İSİG Meclisi conducted the first study into fatalities in Turkey’s recycling industry as part of the investigation. Its analysis found that two people have been ‘crushed, ripped or burned to death’ in the recycling sector every month for the last ten years.
UK waste exports to Turkey increased by 60% between 2022 and 2023, according to an analysis of data by Greenpeace Türkiye.
The analysis of UN Comtrade data showed that the UK was the largest exporter of waste to Turkey in 2023, with 140,907 tonnes sent to the nation across the year, compared to 87,900 tonnes in 2022.
CIWM’s Dan Cooke said the investigation ‘highlights the need to refocus on the crucial basics of human rights, health and safety, combating fraud, and resourcing effective enforcement to enable the responsible recycling, resources and waste sector to succeed’.
“Without getting this right, the UK’s circular economy ambitions are hobbled from the start,” Cooke said.
“Our recent CIWM policy recommendations highlighted the need for greater resourcing to tackle waste crime, and a clear call for policy and regulation to enable improved UK resource resilience, rather than continued reliance on the export of waste and recyclables.”