A shocking podcast reveals the intimate link between pollution, the climate crisis, exploitation to the point of slavery, corruption, violence and our place in the middle of it all. A body was found on the outskirts of Istanbul amongst plastic waste inside a recycling plant. The body of a young man had no legs and a smashed face.The podcast describes how a dedicated team traced what had happened.The young man had fled Afghanistan, after his father had been killed by the Taliban. Like many others, he found work in the appalling conditions of the recycling plants on the desolate margins of Istanbul. .Turkey has an international reputation for dealing with such waste. The plastic came from Europe, mainly the UK. Tons of it are shipped out often mixed illegally with other rubbish.
Plastic recycling is big business for Turkey, but often run through unscrupulous and extremely dangerous practices. Business plans incorporate likely deaths and accidents by setting aside ‘blood money’ to be sent to families. Research found that at least two workers ended up dead each month. Getting mangled in the machinery was not uncommon. All this is invisible to those who live in better-off districts of Istanbul and to us who have dumped our waste far away.
As I place my plastic waste into my recycling bin, I cannot forget this story. Demand companies use less plastic for storage? Stop single use? Buy fewer products wrapped in plastic? Would these steps get to the heart of the matter that Serres explores as ‘appropriation through pollution’?
Pollution grows with the production and consumption of goods, and therefore with the number of rich people with profusely overflowing garbage cans (hard) and loudspeakers (soft)….The Anglo-Saxon term dumping refers to a commercial practice where the shipment of low-priced goods to foreign markets accurately recalls a public dump…What is more, the rich readily discharge waste – another case of dumping – where the very poorest live….When the rich countries discharge their industrial waste to poor countries, are they not also seizing and recolonizing them?
Michel Serres (2011 [2008]) Malfeasance: Appropriation Through Pollution. Stanford University Press.
Boy Wasted is available via ENDS Report’s Eco Chamber podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Guardian newspaper provides a harrowing account of this story.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/23/boy-wasted-podcast-uk-rubbish-turkey-recycling-centres?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other