KARTEPE, Turkey, May 29, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The number of fires breaking out in

plastic recycling plants has soared in Turkey.

Experts and activists suspect it's not a coincidence, believing that some
entrepreneurs want to get rid of unwanted rubbish sometimes imported from
Europe.

In Kartepe, an industrial town in the country's north-west, one of these
sites was closed by the authorities in December after the outbreak of three
fires in less than a month.

One burned for more than 50 hours, spewing toxic black smoke over the area
wedged between the mountains and the Sea of Marmara.

"We don't want our lakes and springs to be polluted," said Beyhan Korkmaz, an
environmental activist in the city.

She is concerned about the polluting dioxin emissions from a dozen similar
fires within a five-kilometre (three-mile) radius in less than two years.

"Should we wear masks?" she said.

There was a fire every three days in Turkey's plastic reprocessing plants on
average last year. The number rose from 33 in 2019 to 121 in 2021, according
to Sedat Gundogdu, a professor specialising in plastic pollution at Cukurova
University in the southern city of Adana.

- 'Plastic lobby' -

Over the same period, Turkey became the leading importer of European plastic
waste -- ahead of Malaysia -- after China banned imports at the start of
2018.

Nearly 520,000 tonnes arrived in Turkey in 2021, adding to the four to six
million tonnes the country generates each year, according to data compiled by
the Turkish branch of the NGO Greenpeace.

Much of this waste ends up in the south of the country, especially in Adana
province, where companies operating illegally have been closed down in recent
years.

Other waste containers arrive at the ports of Izmir in the west and Izmit,
not far from Kartepe.

"The problem is not importing plastic from Europe, the problem is importing
non-recyclable or residual plastics," said Baris Calli, professor of
environmental engineering at Marmara University in Istanbul.

"My feeling is that most of these fires are not just a coincidence," he said.

He explained only 20 to 30 percent of imported plastic waste is recyclable.

"The remaining residues should be sent to incineration plants but the
incineration plants charge some money... that's why when some companies have
significant amounts of residues on their hands they try to find some easy way
to get rid of them," he said.

Gundogdu finds it curious that "most of these fires are happening at night"
and in outlying storage sections of reprocessing centres, away from the
machines.

In a report published in August 2020, international police organisation
Interpol expressed concern about an "an increase in illegal waste fire and
landfills in Europe and Asia", citing Turkey in particular.

Following an October 2021 regulation, companies in the sector found guilty of
arson can have their permits withdrawn.

The environment ministry and the vice-president of the waste and recycling
branch of the Union of Chambers of Commerce of Turkey did not respond when
asked by AFP how many companies have been sanctioned.

"The ministry cannot investigate really carefully, or maybe they don't want
to find" out, Calli said.

He said the plastic industry lobby has grown stronger in Turkey in recent
years.

According to Turkish recyclers' association GEKADER, the plastic waste sector
generates $1 billion a year and employs some 350,000 people in 1,300
companies.

- 'A ray of sunlight is enough' -

In her office overlooking a shabby warehouse in Kartepe, where plastics are
sorted before being recycled or legally incinerated, Aylin Citakli rejected
accusations of arson.

"I don't believe it," the sorting centre's environmental manager said.

"These are easily flammable materials, anything can start a fire, a ray of
sunlight is enough," she said.

Turkey announced a ban on the import of plastic waste in May 2021 following
outcry after the publication of images of waste from Europe dumped in ditches
and rivers.

The ban was lifted a week after it came into force.

Back in Kartepe, environmental activist Korkmaz is worried about the future
of her region, where she has lived for 41 years.

She cited the example of Dilovasi, a town 40 kilometres (25 miles) away that
houses many chemical and metal factories. Scientists have found abnormally
high cancer rates there.

"We don't want to end up like them," she said.