UK plastic ‘waste colonialism’ found to be polluting Turkey’s farming heartland

A Guardian investigation finds irrigation canals polluted with microplastics in Turkey, a major destination for UK waste • ‘Nobody cares’: Turkish farmers bear the burden of UK’s plastic waste problem High levels of microplastics and other plastic contamination have been discovered in a waterway close to a major recycling hub in Turkey supplied with plastic waste by British companies. The polluted waterway, which floods into agricultural fields after heavy rain, feeds into a larger canal used for irrigating crops on the Çukurova plain, in the city of Adana, in the south of the country.

The development is worth tracking because it may create practical public benefit or inform similar work.

A Guardian investigation finds irrigation canals polluted with microplastics in Turkey, a major destination for UK waste • ‘Nobody cares’: Turkish farmers bear the burden of UK’s plastic waste problem High levels of microplastics and other plastic contamination have been discovered in a waterway close to a major recycling hub in Turkey supplied with plastic waste by British companies. The polluted waterway, which floods into agricultural fields after heavy rain, feeds into a larger canal used for irrigating crops on the Çukurova plain, in the city of Adana, in the south of the country. It is one of the largest and most fertile agricultural basins in Turkey. Continue reading...