Plastic recycling has become a big business in Turkey after China banned plastic waste imports in late 2017. But they did have one thing that made them ideal plastic waste dumping grounds: a ready supply of cheap, easily exploitable labor. What China’s near monopoly on the plastic waste trade had obscured was just how big and lucrative it was. In addition, the regulatory regime for plastic waste exports allows for two percent contamination in any shipment of waste. As for the debates over the plastic waste trade playing out in Europe, they were less sanguine.