Disincentivizing Recycling

Plastics are made from oil. They also contaminate air, land and sea. Citizens are constantly being cajoled to recycle plastic items. Greenpeace, however, have established that, of the 688,000 tonnes of discarded plastic waste packaging produced by the UK in 2020, only 486,000 tonnes were recycled 'inhouse' (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/17/uk-plastics-sent-for-recycling-in-turkey-dumped-and-burned-greenpeace-finds). As China now bans 'low grade' plastic waste from the UK, Turkey has become the main receiver of this material. The Turks imported more than 209,000 tonnes of UK plastic waste in 2020. They don't, however, have any infrastructure for plastics recycling. I suspect that some Turks are becoming rich, being paid to take this waste. Most of this plastic is, however, dumped, burned (adding to 'greenhouse gases') or left to pollute the ocean. In deed, more than 50% of the plastic waste, the UK government claims is recycled, is essentially 'dumped' (mainly on Turkey). This dumping damages the Turkish environment and the health of its people. It also acts as a strong disincentive to the UK public, to recycle.