The Structure of Türkiye's Plastic Recycling Economy

Plastic recycling is an industry that forms its own value chain, including waste collection, sorting, washing and pelletizing. According to some sources, a wide range of players operate in this chain in Türkiye, from small-to-medium-scale collectors to industrial companies operating sorting/recycling facilities — a significant part of the sector is clustered in organized industrial zones around Istanbul, Kocaeli and the surrounding region.

A significant portion of recyclable waste is collected outside municipalities' official collection systems, by informal/unregistered recovery workers (street collectors), and brought into the recycling chain. While this structure functions as a practical mechanism that increases the collection rate on one hand, it remains a contested topic on the other, in terms of working conditions and income security.

Türkiye imports certain types of plastic waste to meet the input needs of its own recycling facilities; this topic is periodically debated publicly due to environmental concerns (inflow of insufficiently sorted/contaminated waste), and regulations can change. For current import rules and restrictions, it is recommended to check the current announcements of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.

The raw materials we sell are virgin (primary) material; sourcing recycled content is a separate category requiring different expertise and a different supply chain (see the 'Recycling Targets' article). This article is prepared to introduce the sector's general structure and is not a substitute for an exact, current statistical source.