Noting that plastic waste imports from the UK reached 50 thousand tons in January-August, Vedat Kılıç said, “Turkey’s plastic production capacity is 9.5 million tons per year. With this capacity, we rank sixth in the world and second in Europe after Germany. Therefore, we can clearly say that the plastic recycling sector in Turkey is developing in parallel with the Turkish plastics industry. The plastic waste that Turkey imports meets 4 percent of its annual plastic production. Leaving aside the waste side of the business, Turkey is already a net importer in terms of plastic raw material use. 85 percent of the raw materials of plastic materials produced in Turkey are met from original raw materials imported from abroad. On the other hand, Turkey is a net exporter of plastic products. Therefore, the import figure is not at a level that will disturb the market and disrupt the supply-demand balance. Moreover, when we look at the month-by-month distribution, we see that it continues to decrease. While there were 5 thousand 900 tons of imports in January, 10 thousand 728 tons in February, 10 thousand tons in March, it decreased to around 3 thousand 900 and 4 thousand tons in July and August.” Informing that only 5 to 10 percent of the plastic waste evaluated in Turkey is imported, Kılıç said, “We have been importing plastic waste from Germany for many years as well as the UK. Turkey imports from Europe, America and the Middle East (Iraq, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania) from time to time for raw material deficit. Calling them garbage is just ignorance,” he said.
Vedat Kılıç stated that Turkey imports 333,258 tons of plastic annually, one-sixth of which is imported from the UK, and said, “Plastic waste is actually a cheap raw material. If you cannot bring this raw material to your own industry, you will have to use original materials. This is a serious waste of resources and considering that Turkey is dependent on foreign oil, which is the raw material of plastic, importing plastic waste is the right move.” Turkey’s annual plastic production capacity
While 9.5 million tons, Turkey’s annual plastic imports are 333,258 tons. The ratio of annual plastic waste imports to total plastic production is 4 percent, while the ratio of imported original raw materials is 85 percent.