The findings from a Guardian investigation reignite concerns over Britain’s continuing role in “waste colonialism” – a term used to describe the export of plastic waste by rich nations to poorer countries with less regulated waste management. The EU’s plastic waste exports to Turkey that year rose 19% on the year before to more than 500,000 tonnes. There is no suggestion that the companies exporting plastic waste are acting illegally. View image in fullscreen A plastic waste recycling plant near Adana. A Greenpeace investigation in 2021 found plastic waste from British supermarkets waste dumped and burned in Adana.