c/europe · by schizoidman@lemmy.zip · 100d

Germany was largest exporter of plastic waste in 2025, sending 810,000 tonnes overseas, analysis finds

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/30/germany-largest-exporter-plastic-waste-2025

Much of the waste was sent to Turkey, followed by Malaysia, with Indonesia also a regular destination. Investigations have repeatedly linked the plastic recycling industry in these countries to environmental damage, illegal dumping and burning, and labour abuses.

109 points · 24 comments · view on lemmy.world

24 Comments

trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works · 29 pts · 100d

That's what plastic recycling actually looks like. The plastic waste is removed from its place of origin and introduced into the water cycle some place else.

atro_city@fedia.io · 18 pts · 100d

wHy aRe ThE pOoR CoUnTrIeS pOlLutInG sO MuCh??!1!!!!?11

Because we export our fucking plastic there to absolve ourselves of the responsibility. Exporting waste to third-world countries should quite simply be banned and I'm glad at least the EU will do so.

The EU has agreed to ban exports of plastic waste to countries outside the group of mostly rich OECD nations by November 2026, yet half is still being sent to those destinations. Much of the remainder goes to Turkey, now the largest recipients of European plastic waste.

With the ban approaching, there are concerns that all exports could be redirected to developing OECD countries such as Turkey, as well as parts of eastern Europe, which lack the capacity to manage higher volumes.

Then they can finally shut up about "most pollution to seas some from these 3 Asian countries" and walk in their shoes for a while. Even the UK is suffocating under their waste and it's being dumped everywhere. Tough to blame immigrants when you're doing the polluting and it ends up in your own backyard.

But the people will find a way to blame immigrants anyway. Anything to avoid taxing the rich and their wealth.

leriotdelac@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 100d

Germany recycles the most plastic in Europe, while also using the most plastic. So I'm not surprised. I personallyprefer shopping in Turkish supermarkets in Germany to avoid plastic packaging (I bring my own).

namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev · 11 pts · 100d

We live in a system where costs are only realized at the manufacture of a product and not at its disposal. The inevitable outcome is cheap production wins, leading to throwaway societies, and ignoring the cost of disposal, which is also an important, even critical cost of associated with the product. Society is left to foot the bill, while the manufacturers prance away without having to cover the costs of the problems they created.

The solution is simple - if a company manufactures and sells a product, then that company should be responsible for its disposal as well. This will encourage longer lasting products and reduced environmental damage as well. Plastics are not as cheap as they seem when you factor in the full lifecycle of the costs associated with them.

It would be difficult to implement in practice, but pales in comparison to the massive damage we're doing to the environment.

paw@feddit.org · 3 pts · 100d

Ok, exporting plastic waste is not that good, but: the export champion of the world from yesteryear is so back.

darkmogool@feddit.org · 3 pts · 100d

Yeah… Recycing mixed plastics was always a scam…

starchylemming@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 100d

every item has the same packaging size as before with half teh stuff inside. so you create double the waste to feed yourself

lime@feddit.nu · 1 pts · 100d (16 replies)

that's... not a lot. at 83 million people that's less than 10kg per person per year.

atro_city@fedia.io · 10 pts · 100d (12 replies)

Yes, sent to countries that can't process it and just dump it in the sea. "not a lot"

lime@feddit.nu · 2 pts · 100d (10 replies)

point being, obviously, that most countries send a lot more per capita.

tomi000@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 98d (3 replies)

According to the source that doesnt seem to be the case though. Unfortunately it doesnt list all countries but the US is in 7th place with 62kt exports to non-OECD countries so at least we know that all other countries are below that in total exports. 'Most countries' would already have a lower per-capita at that amount.

lime@feddit.nu · 2 pts · 98d (2 replies)

this source ranks the us fairly low. i'd even say suspiciously low, but the numbers for germany seem correct.

tomi000@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 97d (1 reply)

So Germany is among the highest export per capita. Thanks for providing a source. The numbers seem off though, 10t per person would be insane in a single year^^ maybe the scale is supposed to be kg not tonnes?

lime@feddit.nu · 1 pts · 97d

well that graph is total plastic exports, not waste specifically. i should probably have checked that before linking it. this one is probably more relevant; it shows generated plastic waste, but not exports. however if we take the 810kt from the op article at face value and put that against the 0.48kg/person/day number given to germany in this graph (× 80.83M people × 365 days ≈ 14.2 million tons), we get 810 / 14 200 ≈ 6% of their generated plastic waste being exported. i'd honestly say that's a pretty impressive number, even though it also seems to point to the average german generating more like a ton of plastic waste a year. as someone partially responsible for a multi-tenant building's maintenance it's not an unbelievable figure by any means, but it is a lot.

atro_city@fedia.io · 0 pts · 100d (5 replies)

Obviously that doesn't make a difference to the country receiving 810k tonnes of trash.

lime@feddit.nu · 1 pts · 100d (4 replies)

that country is most likely receiving multiple orders of magnitude more than that.

atro_city@fedia.io · -1 pts · 100d (3 replies)

"so what's a little bit more?". Yeah, great point.

lime@feddit.nu · 1 pts · 100d (2 replies)

i feel like you're not arguing in good faith. my other replies makes it abundantly clear what my point is, but i'll reiterate anyway: germany's plastic export per capita is lower than many other european countries, so singling them out by presenting the number without context is unproductive. in cases like this you want to be going for the low-hanging; if italy exports 15kg of plastic per year, then it's cheaper and faster to get italy down to 9kg rather than inventing new technology to get germany down to 7. repeat for every country. naming and shaming doesn't work when they're in the lead.

sweden missed their paris accord climate goals because of thinking like yours: the accords called for improvement in greenhouse gas emissions from industry every year by a certain number of tons, and we couldn't get there because we were already using the latest tech. poland, meanwhile, started slowing down their transition because the better they did one year the harder the next one would be.

atro_city@fedia.io · 0 pts · 100d

Alright, I'll level with you. What annoyed me was your use of "obviously" and "abundantly clear". Please consider where you are right now and what medium you're using:

you might be anywhere in the world with a completely different experience and culture than me
you are communicating on a medium where your intention can only be judged by the words you write in the context they are present. no facial expressions, no emojis, no tone of voice, nothing else

So things aren't as "obvious" as you make them out to be.

Now that that is out of the way, you are still downplaying the role Germany plays in plastic pollution. 810 thousand tonnes is far from a negligible amount to export per year. No matter how you spin it, Western countries still consume and waste obscenely more than non-Western countries. They do terribly in carbon consumption too.

I can appreciate the "at least we aren't doing as bad those other guys" ( imagine the brag "hey we gassed only 600k Jews, they gassed 2M, we're so much better!") , but it's still 810 thousand tonnes exported to countries that cannot deal with even their domestic plastic waste. If the headline were "Germany dumped 810 kilo tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean", that would sound no better than the "UK dumped 675 kilo tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean". Of course, if we just say "exported" it seems cute and maybe even economy boosting. "We gave Malaysia a few megatonnes of plastic and they just dumped it into the ocean! Bad Malaysia, bad!"

Being able to export the waste to a country that a) doesn't produce even half as much and b) cannot deal with it, doesn't make up for however much you recycle (or claim to recycle) in your own country. It's a cop out.

tomi000@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 98d

Not trying to defend it, but those 810kt are total export, 235kt are whats being exported to non-OECD countries according to the source, so about 3kg per person (which is still a lot)

doenerpate@feddit.org · 7 pts · 100d (2 replies)

That’s not a small amount either, 10 kilos, with most of it probably being single-use plastic containers and bags, so it’s mostly avoidable. I’m really not that big of an environmental guy, but using so much plastic is just wasteful, especially considering the plan is to export it to poorer countries as a permanent solution.

lime@feddit.nu · 3 pts · 100d (1 reply)

the question is how it stacks up per capita to other countries. if everyone else in europe exports like 12-13kg per year per capita then obviously germany is not the main problem.

Babalugats@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 100d

More figures are needed. Who manufactures most.

What are most use cases for plastic in each countries origin. (e.g. where do products originate from that arrive pre packaged in plastic rather than in cardboard or other better options)

Among other things