Europe’s Plastic Problem
Mehmet has lived 30 years in same residential area of the south-eastern town of Mersin, Türkiye. He remembers how green it was before the recycling centers started surrounding the neighborhood but now he states, "So many people have been diagnosed with cancer. We’re especially worried about our children’s health. It’s like we’re living in Chernobyl without being exposed to chemical explosion.” While Europe tries to reduce its plastic footprint by shipping waste abroad, the true cost lies in the health of Turkish residents, workers' labor conditions, and the environment.
China received nearly half of the worlds waste for processing until a ban in 2018 left many countries in the global north looking for new solutions. For the European Union, Türkiye filled the void and within 2 years plastic waste imports increased by over thousand percent. Azimye, 55-year-old, has lived in the same home in Mersin for nearly half her life, before recycling facilities existed there. Recently, she’s developed cancer with various tumors in her chest and throat, allegedly from plastic waste emitted by these treatment plants. “It doesn’t look good,” she said about doctors’ diagnosis.
Türkiye, one of the top 20 countries of mismanaging plastic waste, cannot properly manage its own waste, making it challenging to process massive imports of European plastic. Nearly 80 percent of domestic trash recycled in Türkiye is sorted from trash pickers by hand, who often are migrants unable to find other work. After months of reporting, the photos reveal the reality of how foreign and domestic waste is handled in Türkiye and its impact. The question is: if Türkiye cannot handle its own waste properly, how is it suppose to handle Europe’s waste?
This project was published in Zeit, and can be found here.
& The Reality of Türkiye’s Response
Workers organize shipments of recyclable plastic gathered by street collectors in Istanbul, Turkey.
A semi-truck full of European waste gets transported into an illegal processing facility where it is sorted, shredded, and burned into reusable plastic in Adana, Turkey.
A worker demonstrates the final product of recycling plastic in Adana, Turkey. After it is sorted, shredded, washed, than melted the recyclable plastic is formed into pellets that will be sold to facilities that can convert it into plastic materials to be used again.
Obaidallah sorts through plastic waste with his boss in a recycling center in Istanbul, Turkey. Omair can be seen in the background standing at the entrance of a shipping container where he and other Afghan refugees live within the facility.
By not having legal status and fear of being deported, the Afghan refugees, most under 18 years old, share an old shipping container within the recycling facility they now call home in Istanbul, Turkey. To keep their spirits up the workers often dance at night.
The workers stay close to an electric heater as it glows red and keeps the container warm through the cold winter months in Istanbul, Turkey
A young man, 17 years old, poses for a portrait who recently came from Afghanistan and staying in a recycling facility in Istanbul, Turkey.
An illegal dumping site in Mersin, Turkey, outside the nearby recycling facilities where European waste can be found.
A young worker from Afghanistan climbs into a trash bin to sort recently received bundles of recyclable plastic into a container in Istanbul, Turkey.
Workers can be seen looking for any recyclable waste to collect and sell to the nearby facilities. This is a residential area that is located next to plastic processing facilities in Mersin, Turkey where the neighborhood can be seen covered in litter.
Can, 12 years old, is from Istanbul and works as a recycler to earn money since his mother became chronically ill. When asked about how he feels about recycling, Can replied, “people get used to things they have to.”
Azimye and her son, Efe, prepare fish inside her home in Mersin, Turkey. Efe has stopped working to take care of his mother full time since she has gotten ill. Efe states, I couldn’t leave my mother alone in this difficult process, what would they do to my mother while I was away because we were complaining?.... They would try to scare me when I would leave. They came to our house, broke the windows, threw stones, stole, and threaten us.”
Azimye receives chemotherapy for tumors that have surfaced in her throat and chest in Mersin, Turkey.
Azimye, 55 years old, poses for a portrait in her home after receiving cancer treatment. Her home is located between three recycling centers in Mersin, Turkey, where she been exposed to burning plastic for years.
Plastic anthropocene collected from illegal dumping sites throughout Adana, and Mersin, Turkey. Trash from England, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Poland, Germany, Canada, Sweden, and the United States were found. The majority of waste found was from the UK.