Turkey Becomes Europe's 'Trash Dump'

The Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), has reported that Turkey was the largest importer of waste exported from EU countries in 2021, with a total of 14.7 million tons. In 2020, Turkey had also ranked first as the country importing the most waste from the EU, with a figure of 13.7 million tons. It is noted that the majority of imported waste consists of metal containing iron. This information was reported by ermenihaber.am.

Turkey's rise to the top occurred after China, the largest importer of plastic waste, banned the import of trash in 2017. Turkey is the country to which Britain exported the most plastic waste in 2020. The Bloomberg agency tracked the movement of plastic waste sent from the British supermarket chain Tesco to Turkey using GPS over a two-month period.

In 2021, the trend did not change. With 14.7 million tons, Turkey again leads the list. The second largest buyer of exported waste is India, which imported 2.4 million tons.