Read something about UK plastic waste ending up in Turkey's farmland. Is this actually a big problem? Does this mean my recycling isn't as eco-friendly as I thought?
It's a real issue - a lot of plastic marked for recycling does end up in places like Turkey where it's either dumped or burned instead of being properly processed, which defeats the whole purpose. That said, the best thing you can do is reduce what you send to recycling in the first place: avoid single-use stuff, buy less packaged goods, and be realistic about what actually gets recycled (most soft plastics don't). Your recycling still matters if your local authority does handle it properly, but it's not a magic solution - it's more like damage control while we figure out how to make less plastic overall.
The framing here is a bit binary - it's not that recycling is either totally fine or pointless, it's messier than that. Yes, some exported plastic does end up mismanaged abroad, but the real question is whether your local council actually sends material for export or processes it domestically, and that varies hugely by region. I looked into what happens with my own recycling bin after a few stories like this circulated, and it turned out my local authority has contracts with UK processing facilities for most of it - some plastic still gets exported, but to licensed operations, not dumpsites. The honest answer is you can't know for certain what happens to yours without checking your council's waste reports or contacting them directly. That said, the best thing you can do isn't to stop recycling; it's to reduce plastic consumption in the first place, since less waste leaving your house means less that can go wrong downstream.
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