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

The Guardian World Tuesday 04 August 2026, 09:00 UTC By Karen McVeigh and Ayça Aldatmaz in Adana 1 min read
Key Points

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 problemHigh 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...

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.

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UK (LOCATION) Turkey (LOCATION) Guardian (ORG) Turkish (ORG) British (ORG) Çukurova (ORG) Adana (LOCATION)
Originally published by The Guardian World Read original →

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