What will become of that plastic bottle you just diligently placed in the recycling bin? If you're reading this from the European Union, there’s a chance it might end up far, far away — possibly fueling an industry associated with serious environmental and health risks.

Official figures from statistics agency Eurostat show the EU exported 1.1 million tons of plastic waste to countries outside the bloc in 2021. And according to the European Parliament, around half of all the plastic collected in the EU for recycling is shipped elsewhere, with the number one recipient being Turkey.

The nongovernmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated the impact on workers and local communities there. "They're the ones bearing the brunt of the impacts of what is known to be a hazardous industry." 

HRW environmental researcher Katharina Rall explained. "People talk to us about the health effects or what they believe are the effects, linked to the work itself, the fact that they're working in factories where they're potentially inhaling toxic [air]."

Workers said they lacked access to protective equipment, with some claiming to have worked there since they were children. Rall also noted shoddy enforcement of environmental laws for nearby communities.

Tighter waste rules coming

But if you're concerned about that plastic bottle, you may be pleased to hear EU waste management laws are due for a reboot.  On Tuesday, a clear majority of the European Parliament voted in favor of banning the export of recyclable plastic waste to non-OECD countries, which includes major recipients like Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia and other former colonies of European powers. 

This goes a step beyond the European Commission's own proposal from late 2021, which would only allow such exports with prior consent. Outward shipments of non-recyclable, unsorted plastics were already banned in early 2021 to align the bloc with international standards.

A majority of EU lawmakers also supported phasing out shipments to OECD countries, meaning Turkey would be off the cards in the second half of this decade. In addition, non-EU export of all kinds of waste (which totalled 32.7 million tons in 2020) should only be allowed to non-OECD countries if they explicitly agree to take it and show they can deal with it sustainably, the European Parliament explained in a press release.

"We must turn waste into resources in the (EU) common market, and thereby take better care of our environment and competitiveness," said Pernille Weiss — the center-right European Parliament member who led the report, which was put to the vote on Tuesday — in the statement, the underlying idea of which is that the EU must start to take more responsibility for its own waste, as well as working to reduce it.

Full plastics ban 'only a matter of time'

With the EU legislature's stance now clear, the ball passes to the EU member states, who must adopt a position before negotiations on the final legal package can begin.

Rall said it wasn't yet clear which way the EU national governments would go on the plastics export ban. But for her, it is "only a matter of time" before the EU implements such a ban, not least because of the documented human rights issues.

"At some point there will be very few options left on where to export the waste," she told DW.

China banned imports in 2017, and Turkey did so temporarily in 2021, Rall explained, while at the same time noting that the practice may be on the rise elsewhere, citing both West and East Africa as new destinations for European, US and Canadian waste exports.

In fact, EU plastic waste exports are on the decline, having peaked in 2014, as figures from Eurostat show. China was for a long time the major recipient of EU plastic waste, a title that passed to Turkey after Beijing introduced its ban on imports in 2017.

Fewer exports means greater responsibility

With exports rules likely to tighten regardless of the exact outcome of EU negotiations, the onus should shift to domestic processing capacity, as well as waste reduction. The EU plastic recycling industry had a turnover of €7.6 billion ($8.2 billion) in 2020, according to industry body Plastic Recyclers Europe, with sorting capacity having significantly increased over the past two decades.

In the past, firming up rules has prompted fears that more plastic would be incinerated or put to landfill. Within the EU, around 40% of plastic is used for energy recovery, 33% is recycled, and 25% is put to landfill, according to the European Parliament.

But Theresa Mörsen of the NGO Zero Waste Europe says changed export regimes would also encourage domestic reform. "If plastic waste is retained inside the EU, it will actually facilitate better sorting and recycling of the existing plastic," she told DW. It would also encourage member states to enact laws that require greater recyclability, according to Mörsen. "We see a lot of non-recyclable things that end up either being incinerated or exported through illegal channels," she explained.

For campaigners like Mörsen and Rall, Tuesday's vote is a clear win. "Another important step towards ending waste colonialism," said Lauren Weir of the Environmental Investigation Agency.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer, Nicole Goebel