¹ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988. The quote is ‘Will Turkey become Western Europe's garbage dump?’ (‘Türkiye, Batı Avrupa ülkelerinin çöp deposu mu olacak?’). This phrase was widely used in Turkish newspapers at the time. See also ‘Ithal çöpte büyük kâr’, Milliyet, 17 Feb. 1988. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

² The main sources of Turkish toxic waste imports were West Germany, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the Benelux states. See ‘Hazine Müsteşarlığı varillerin peşine düştü’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988; ‘Fern in der Türkei, wo der Giftmüll brennt…’, Tageszeitung, 2 Feb. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, Archiv Grünes Gedächtnis (Archives of the German Green Party), Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin (henceforth ‘AGG’). On West German and Western European pressures to export toxic waste outside of the EEC, see ‘Halkımızın sağlığı ile oynanmasına, doğamızın kirletilmesine göz yumulmamalı. Ithal çöpler ve sağlıgımız’, Milliyet, 3 Mar. 1988; ‘Vermerk. Betr.: Forschungsvorhaben “Auswirkungen von Umweltschutzmaßnahmen auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit umweltschutzkostenintensiver Produktionen der deutschen Industrie”; hier: Besprechung bei Hoechst AG, Frankfurt, am 08.01.1988’, 2 Feb. 1988; ‘Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung. Projektangebot zum Forschungsvorhaben “Auswirkungen von Umweltschutzmaßnahmen auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit umweltschutzkostenintensiver Produktion der deutschen Wirtschaft” (BMWI-Katalog Nr. 15/88), Berlin, Mai 1988’, May 1988, B102/372607, Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) Koblenz (henceforth ‘BArch’).

³ On Turkey's limited regulations, Gören, Sami and Özdemir, Feyza, ‘Regulation of Waste and Waste Management in Turkey’, Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, 29, 4 (2011)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed discuss how Turkey's waste regulations were only expanded between 2003 and 2008. See also Akkoyunlu, Atilla et al., ‘Hazardous Waste Management in Turkey’, Journal of Hazardous, Toxic and Radioactive Waste, 21, 4 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the factors contributing to rapidly growing West German toxic waste exports, which tripled between 1983 and 1986 alone, see Porter, Richard C., The Economics of Waste (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2002), 112–13Google Scholar; Laura A. Strohm, ‘The Environmental Politics of the International Waste Trade’, The Journal of Environment and Development, 2, 2 (Jul. 1993), 129–30; ‘Pressemitteilung Nr. 130/86. Grüne streben gesetzliches Verbot des Giftmülltourismus an’, 26 Feb. 1986, B.II.1, 6287, AGG. To be sure, the hazardous waste trade predated the 1980s by several decades, though on a much smaller scale. See, for instance, Simone M. Müller, ‘The “Flying Dutchmen”: Ships’ Tales of Toxic Waste in a Globalized World’, in Christof Mauch, ed., ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society, 1 (2016). Kate O'Neill notes that a majority of waste trading occurred between industrialised nations. See O'Neill, Kate, Waste Trading Among Rich Nations: Building a New Theory of Environmental Regulation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Hecht, Gabrielle, ‘Hopes for the Radiated Body: Uranium Miners and Transnational Technopolitics in Namibia’, Journal of African History, 51 (2010), 214CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ Emily Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’, Environmental History, 16 (Apr. 2011), 278, notes that these phenomena have been well documented for former colonies and metropoles, like Benin and France.

⁶ Joshua Reno discusses this tension between waste as economically generative and waste as a ‘lost and irredeemable expenditure, one that is the opposite of economic productivity’ in Military Waste: The Unexpected Consequences of Permanent War Readiness (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2019), 2. See also Reno, Joshua, ‘Waste and Waste Management’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 44 (2015), 560CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Reno, Joshua, ‘Your Trash is Someone's Treasure: The Politics of Value at a Michigan Landfill’, Journal of Material Culture, 14, 1 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Catherine Alexander and Joshua Reno define the process as ‘recycling’, which transforms ‘used objects and materials . . . into something else’ rather then resulting in them being ‘discarded’. See Catherine Alexander and Joshua Reno, eds., Economies of Recycling: The Global Transformation of Materials, Values and Social Relations (London: Zed Books, 2012), 1.

⁷ ‘Introduction: The Values of Indeterminacy’, in Catherine Alexander and Andrew Sanchez, eds., Indeterminacy: Waste, Value, and the Imagination (New York: Berghahn, 2019), 2.

⁸ Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’, 276.

⁹ Gille, Zsuzsa, ‘From Risk to Waste: Global Food Waste Regimes’, The Sociological Review, 60 (2013), 29Google Scholar. See also Gille, Zsuzsa, From the Cult of Waste to the Trash Heap of History: the Politics of Waste in Socialist and Postsocialist Hungary (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007)Google Scholar; and Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’, 263. According to Joshua Reno, a waste regime refers to ‘the way that waste is dominantly understood and dealt with in a given place and time’. See Reno, ‘Waste and Waste Management’, 564.

¹⁰ Reno, ‘Your Trash is Someone's Treasure’.

¹¹ As scholars including Emily Brownell, Zsuzsa Gille, Simone Müller, and Kate O'Neill, among others, have done. See Gille, From the Cult of Waste to the Trash Heap of History; O'Neill, Waste Trading Among Rich Nations; Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’.

¹² On the ‘Wasteocene’, see Marco Armiero and Massimo De Angelis, ‘Anthropocene: Victims, Narrators, and Revolutionaries’, South Atlantic Quarterly, 116 (Apr. 2017), 348; Marco Armiero, Wasteocene: Stories from the Global Dump (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), as well as Armiero, Marco, ‘The Case for the Wasteocene’ and the other contributions to the recent forum ‘Of Perpetrators and Victims: Toxicity in Environmental History’, in Environmental History, 26, 3 (Jul. 2021)Google Scholar. On connections with the Anthropocene, see Hecht, Gabrielle, ‘Interscalar Vehicles for an African Anthropocene: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence’, Cultural Anthropology, 33, 1 (2018). 111CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On toxicity and the chemically altered world that humans have created, see for example Boudia, Soraya and Jas, Nathalie, eds., Powerless Science? Science and Politcs in a Toxic World? (New York: Berghahn Books, 2014)Google Scholar; Sarathy, Brinda et al., Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure, and Expertise (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Little, Peter C., Toxic Town: IBM, Pollution, and Industrial Risks (New York: New York University Press, 2014)Google Scholar; Langston, Nancy, Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011)Google Scholar; Nash, Linda, Inescapable Ecologies: A History of Environment, Disease, and Knowledge (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Walker, Brett, Toxic Archipelago: A History of Industrial Disease in Japan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010)Google Scholar. See also Egan, Michael, ‘Toxic Knowledge: A Mercurial Fugue in Three Parts’, Environmental History, 13, 4 (Oct. 2008)Google Scholar; Steve Kroll-Smith and Worth Lancaster, ‘Review Article: Bodies, Environments and a New Style of Reasoning’, Annals of the American Academy AAPS, 594 (Nov. 2002); Michelle Murphy, ‘Chemical Regimes of Living’, Environmental History, 13, 4 (Oct. 2008); Jody A. Roberts and Nancy Langston, ‘Toxic Bodies/Toxic Environments: An Interdisciplinary Forum’, Environmental History, 13, 4 (Oct. 2008); Julia Adeney Thomas, ‘History and Biology in the Anthropocene: Problems of Scale, Problems of Value’, The American Historical Review, 119, 5 (2014).

¹³ Borowy, Iris, ‘Hazardous Waste: The Beginning of International Organizations Addressing a Growing Global Challenge in the 1970s’, Worldwide Waste: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2, 1 (2019)Google Scholar. On the 1980s expansion, see Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’, 277.

¹⁴ Pellow, David N., Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), 8–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Jennifer Clapp also notes that ‘pollution control costs’ rose in tandem with ‘more stringent regulations’, which prompted firms in the United States and Europe to evade these costs by exporting toxic waste to developing nations. See Clapp, Jennifer, Toxic Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Wastes from Rich to Poor Countries (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), 109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Nixon, Rob, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Voyles, Traci Brynne, Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁶ Marco Armiero and Lise Fernanda Sedrez, ‘Introduction’, in Marco Armiero and Lisa Sedrez, eds., A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories (London: Bloomsbury, 2014); Alison Frank Johnson, ‘Europe without Borders: Environmental and Global History in a World after Continents’, Contemporary European History, 31, 1 (2022).

¹⁷ Ann Laura Stoler, ‘Introduction’ in Ann Laura Stoler, ed., Imperial Debris: On Ruins and Ruination (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013), 19; Reno, Military Waste.

¹⁸ On Turkish-German relations in the years leading up to these scandals, see Tim Szatkowski, Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die Türkei, 1978 bis 1983 (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2016).

¹⁹ Mehmet Döşemeci, Debating Turkish Modernity: Civilization, Nationalism, and the EEC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

²⁰ Not unlike Gabrielle Hecht's investigation of uranium production in South Africa, in which Hecht has shown, for example, how technopolitical mechanisms that reflected ‘deliberate decisions’ were embedded in pre-existing power relations, rather than being clearly articulated as intentional, goal-oriented policies. See Gabrielle Hecht, ‘The Work of Invisibility: Radiation Hazards and Occupational Health in South African Uranium Production’, International Labor and Working-Class History, 81 (Spring 2012), 94–5.

²¹ ‘Çöp kolonyalizmi’, Milliyet, 19 Jun. 1988. On the historical context, within a vast literature, see Christopher Clay, Gold for the Sultan: Western Bankers and Ottoman Finance, 1856–1881 (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000); Charles Issawi, The Economic History of Turkey, 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000); Haydar Kazgan, Osmanlıda Avrupa Finans Kapitali (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1995); Donald Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire, 1881–1908. Reactions to European Economic Penetration (New York: New York University Press, 1983); Şevket Pamuk, Uneven Centuries: Economic Development of Turkey since 1820 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018) and The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820–1913. Trade, Investment and Production (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Eldem, Edhem, The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir and Istanbul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Issawi, Charles, The Economic History of Turkey, 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Maurits van den Boogert, The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls, and Beraths in the 18th Century (Leiden: Brill, 2005). On the ways that development in the 1980s built on earlier colonial relations, see Ziai, Aram, Development Discourse and Global History: From Colonialism to the Sustainable Development Goals (New York: Routledge, 2016)Google Scholar.

²² Gourlay, K. A., World of Waste: Dilemmas of Industrial Development (London: Zed Books, 1992), 14Google Scholar.

²³ One journalist noted that Büyüktemiz's name was a clear misnomer, the exact opposite of what the firm does. See ‘Çöp kolonyalizmi’, Milliyet, 19 Jun. 1988.

²⁴ ‘Giftmüll. Irrfahrt am Bosporus’, Stern, 2 Nov. 1988. The commentary, ‘Pressereferat, Betr.: MS Petersberg, Bezug: Veröffentlichung des Stern über Kontamination der Ladung, Kontakte mit BMV, AA’, 2 Nov. 2, 1988, B295/17596, BArch, refuted some of the article's claims, but not the details about Büyüktemiz himself.

²⁵ For the general context, see Şeref Saygılı, Cengiz Cihan, and Hasan Yurtoğlu, Türkiye Ekonomisinde Sermaye Birikimi, Büyüme ve Verimlilik, 1972–2003 (Ankara: Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, 2005).

²⁶ With the proviso that precise aid flows were difficult to calculate, even for policy makers overseeing aid budgets, an article in the Frankfurter Rundschau suggested that 1988 was the first time in the postwar era that Western aid flows declined in real, inflation-adjusted terms. See ‘Westen gibt erstmals weniger Entwicklungshilfe’, Frankfurter Rundschau, 17 Dec. 1988, B.II.1, 1969, AGG.

²⁷ ‘INGAR Ing.- und Architektur-Büro [Stuttgart]. Exposé. Problem Müllentsorgung und Endlagerung in der Türkei’, 1 Jun. 1987, B295/17614, BArch. West Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, also had a lack of ‘suitable’ disposal facilities. See ‘Intermerc GmbH, Entwicklungs- und Verkaufsgesellschaft für Industrieprodukte, an alle Regierungspräsidenten des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Betr.: Entsorgung von Industriebfällen und Sondermüll’, 6 Apr. 1988, B295/17614, BArch.

²⁸ Gül Tuçaltan, ‘Informalization of Waste Regimes: The Entanglement of Urbanization, Poverty and Waste in Ankara’, in Onur Inal and Ethemcan Turhan, eds., Transforming Socio-Natures in Turkey: Landscapes, State and Environmental Movements (London: Routledge, 2020).

²⁹ Joshua Reno highlights how this dynamic encompassed both toxic waste and other types of investment. See ‘Beyond Risk: Emplacement and the Production of Environmental Evidence’, American Ethnologist, 38, 3 (2011), 520. Brownell, ‘Negotiating the New Economic Order of Waste’, 278 details similar American efforts to donate incinerators to Caribbean recipients of US toxic waste exports.

³⁰ ‘Tavsanli will den deutschen Giftmüll nicht’, Tageszeitung, 3 Mar. 1988; ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG.

³¹ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG.

³² ‘Wolfgang Honold, Geschäftsführer, Faktum, Internationale Handels AG, Fahrweid (CH), 18.3.1988, Betreff: Abfallentsorgung Türkei’, B295/17614, BArch.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ For the general context, see Ziya Öniş and Steven Webb, Political Economy of Policy Reform in Turkey in the 1980s (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1992) and Ali Coşkun Tunçer, Sovereign Debt and International Financial Control: the Middle East and the Balkans (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

³⁵ Ibid.

³⁶ Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG; ‘Fern in der Türkei, wo der Giftmüll brennt…’, Tageszeitung, 2 Feb. 1988, Die Grünen im EP, B.IV.2, 1299, AGG.

³⁷ ‘Betr.: Verbringung von Abfällen in die Türkei, Bezug: Telefonat mit Herrn Dunz, Umweltministerium Stuttgart am 16.2.1988’, 16 Feb. 1988, B295/17614 BArch.

³⁸ The licence itself is available in the German Federal Archives: ‘Özel karakterli bertaraf edilecek malzemeler için ithal müsaadesi’, 23 Sep. 1987, B295/17614, BArch. See also ‘INGAR Ing.- und Architektur-Büro (Stuttgart). Exposé. Problem Müllentsorgung und Endlagerung in der Türkei’, 1 Jun. 1987, B 295/17614, BArch.

³⁹ ‘Zehirli çöpe Kütahya'dan meydan okuma. Semra Hanım da çöp ithal edecek’, Milliyet, 28 Feb. 1988.

⁴⁰ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁴¹ ‘Ithal çöpte oyun bozuldu’, Cumhuriyet, 2 Mar. 1988 cited 1581 tons of imported industrial waste. Estimates varied but were generally in the range of 1500–1600 tons. See also ‘Giftfässer aus der BRD verseuchen Schwarzmeerküste’, Tageszeitung, 22 Aug. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG.

⁴² ‘Giftfässer aus der BRD verseuchen Schwarzmeerküste’, Tageszeitung, 22 Aug. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG.

⁴³ Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG; ‘Giftfässer aus der BRD verseuchen Schwarzmeerküste’, Tageszeitung, 22 Aug. 1988, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, B.IV.2, AGG.

⁴⁴ ‘Türkische Botschaft Bonn, An das Landratsamt Göppingen, Amt Umweltschutz’, 28 Apr. 1988, B295/17614, BArch. ‘Alman çöpü sakıncalı’, Milliyet, 10 Mar. 1988, and ‘Giftfässer aus der BRD verseuchen Schwarzmeerküste’, Tageszeitung, 22 Aug. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG. See also ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁴⁵ ‘Fern in der Türkei, wo der Giftmüll brennt…’, Tageszeitung, 8 Feb. 1988, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, B.IV.2, AGG.

⁴⁶ ‘Çöp ihracı yeni sömürgecilik’, Cumhuriyet, 25 Mar. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG.

⁴⁷ ‘Çöp yerine işleme fabrikası ithal edilsin’, Milliyet, 18 Feb. 1988. The relevant quotes from the Istanbul garbage king, Osman Söyler, are: ‘The Germans are sending garbage to us because it is harmful’ (‘Almanlar çöpleri zararlı olduğu için bize gönderiyorlar’); and ‘Europeans are very conscious about garbage’ (‘Avrupa insanı çöp konusunda çok bilinçili’).

⁴⁸ On the need to avoid ‘waste tourism’, see ‘Staatssekretär, Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, an den Chef der Hessischen Staatsklanzlei Herrn Dr. Alexander Gauland’, 2 Nov. 1987. On states like Baden-Württemberg sidestepping such efforts, see ‘Betr.: Verbringung von Abfällen in die Türkei, Bezug: Telefonat mit Herrn Dunz, Umweltministerium Stuttgart am 16.2.1988’, 16 Feb. 1988, both in B295/17614, BArch.

⁴⁹ ‘Staatssekretär, Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, an den Chef der Hessischen Staatsklanzlei Herrn Dr. Alexander Gauland’, 2 Nov. 1987, B295/17614, BArch. In a curious connection between the waste saga and the roots of anti-migrant politics in post-unification Germany, the recipient of this document, Alexander Gauland, would later go on to co-found and serve as leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD).

⁵⁰ ‘Staatssekretär, Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, an den Chef der Hessischen Staatsklanzlei Herrn Dr. Alexander Gauland’, 2 Nov. 1987, B295/17614, BArch.

⁵¹ ‘Pressemitteilung Nr. 29/88 der Grünen im Landtag von Baden-Würtemmberg, 10.2.1988. Grüne protestieren gegen Giftmüllverschiebung in die Türkei’; ‘Pressemittelung Nr. 35/88 der Grünen im Landtag von Baden-Würtemmberg, 23.2.1988. Giftmüllexport in die Türkei: Grüne fordern Landesregierung zur Stellungnahme auf’; ‘Pressemitteilung Nr. 54/88 der Grünen im Landtag von Baden-Würtemmberg, 11.3.1988’, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG. There are numerous additional documents on this subject in B.II.1, 910, AGG.

⁵² As detailed in a report by the University of Ankara in Feb. 1988, cit. in ‘Alman çöpü sakıncalı’, Milliyet, 10 Mar. 1988, and ‘Giftfässer aus der BRD verseuchen Schwarzmeerküste’, Tageszeitung, 22 Aug. 1988, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG. See also ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁵³ Letter, Turkish Minister of Health to Büyüktemiz, 21 Dec. 1987, B295/17614, BArch.

⁵⁴ Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG.

⁵⁵ ‘Kleine Anfrage der Abgeordneten Frau Garbe und der Fraktion Die Grünen. Giftmüllverbringung nach Afrika (Drucksache 11/2475, 13.06.88)’, B295/17546, BArch.

⁵⁶ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988; ‘Tavsanli will den deutschen Giftmüll nicht’, Tageszeitung, 3 Mar. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG. The operating licence was from 20 Nov. 1987: see ‘Wolfgang Honold, Geschäftsführer, Faktum, Internationale Handels AG, Fahrweid (CH), 18.3.1988, Betreff: Abfallentsorgung Türkei’, B295/17614, BArch.

⁵⁷ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988. The Tavşanlı district president, Coşkun is mistakenly referred to as ‘Revzi Cosgun’ and incorrectly identified as the mayor of Isparta (a similar but not identical position to Coşkun's) in ‘Tavsanli will den deutschen Giftmüll nicht’, Tageszeitung, 3 Mar. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG.

⁵⁸ ‘Tavsanli will den deutschen Giftmüll nicht’, Tageszeitung, 3 Mar. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG.

⁵⁹ ‘Giftmüll aus deutschen Landen für türkische Öfen’, Stuttgarter Nachrichten, B.IV.2, Die Grünen im EP, 1299, AGG. The original term is ‘Ersatzbrennstoff aus Sonderabfall’.

⁶⁰ Ziya Öniş, ‘Turgut Özal and His Economic Legacy: Turkish Neo-Liberalism in Critical Perspective’, Middle Eastern Studies, 40, 4 (2004); Şenses, Fikret, ‘Turkey's Experience with Neoliberal Policies since 1980 in Retrospect and Prospect’, New Perspectives on Turkey, 47, 47 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taymaz, Erol and Voyvoda, Ebru, ‘Marching to the Beat of a Late Drummer: Turkey's Experience of Neoliberal Industrialization since 1980’, New Perspectives on Turkey, 47, 47 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶¹ ‘Zehirli çöp başka yerde yakılsın’, Milliyet, 15 Mar. 1988.

⁶² ‘Çöp tartışması’, Milliyet, 25 Feb. 1988.

⁶³ ‘Tavsanli will den deutschen Giftmüll nicht’, Tageszeitung, 3 Mar. 1988, B.II.1, 6374, AGG.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG. This was part of a wider trend that saw over 90 developing nations outlaw toxic waste imports between 1986 and 1993, as noted by Brownell, 278.

⁶⁶ ‘Devlet Bakanı Kahveci açıkladv İthal çöp içîn üç önlem horiyet'e bilgi verdi’, Cumhuriyet, 3 Jul. 1988. On Kahveci's measures to restrict toxic waste imports, see also ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988. For the broader context, see Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG.

⁶⁷ ‘Devlet Bakanı Kahveci açıkladv İthal çöp içîn üç önlem horiyet'e bilgi verdi’, Cumhuriyet, 3 Jul. 1988. See also ‘Çöp mafya işi’, Milliyet, 1 Aug. 1989; Greenpeace (Hamburg), ‘Internationaler Müllhandel: Europa und der Mittlere Osten’, B.II.1, 999, AGG.

⁶⁸ ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, See 13/26.40.70-10, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B 295/17596, BArch. In one contemporary account, Gourlay, World of Waste, 1, the global trade was likewise described in terms of decay: ‘dilapidated ships . . . [carrying a] rapidly deteriorating cargo’.

⁶⁹ Ibid.

⁷⁰ Description of incident by Nielsen Shipping & Trading GmbH, untitled document, dated 17 Aug. 1988, addressed to ‘Rudolf Seiters, MdB und 1er parlam. Geschäftsführer der CDU/CSU, Bonn’ (Rudolf Seiters, Member of Parliament and First Parliamentary President of the CDU/CSU, Bonn), B295/17595, BArch. The report refers to ‘contaminated soil’ (‘kontaminierte Erde’).

⁷¹ The timeline relies on the Nielsen Shipping agency's testimony to the West German Parliament, cited in the previous footnote and archived in B295/17595, BArch, as well as on Cumhuriyet interviews with customs and dock officials in Izmit in ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁷² Description of incident by Nielsen Shipping & Trading GmbH, untitled document, dated 17 Aug. 1988, addressed to ‘Rudolf Seiters, MdB und 1er parlam. Geschäftsführer der CDU/CSU, Bonn’ (Rudolf Seiters, Member of Parliament and First Parliamentary President of the CDU/CSU, Bonn), B295/17595, BArch; ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Referat See 13/26.40.70-10-01/88, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschen Schiffen im Cross Trade MS “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988; ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr. See 13/26.40.70-10. Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B 295/17596, BArch.

⁷³ ‘Zur information. Die botschaft wien teilt mit’, 18 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ In West Germany, this case escalated to the highest levels of government, and involved the Federal Chancellor. See the report sent by the Federal Transport Minister to the Head of the Chancellor's Office, ‘Betr.: Transport gefährlicher Güter mit Schiffen unter deutscher Flagge; hier: Bericht des BMW in der Kabinettsitzung am 21 Sept. 1988; Bezug: Kabinettvorlage des BMW vom 14.09.1988 – gl. Az.; Ergebnis der heutigen Staatssekretärbesprechung. (16.9.1988)’, 16 Sep. 1988, B295/17547, BArch. On the international phenomenon of ships carrying toxic waste, see Müller, ‘The “Flying Dutchmen”’.

⁷⁶ ‘Giftmüll. So ein Wirbel’, Der Spiegel, 7 Aug. 1988.

⁷⁷ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Ibid.

⁸⁰ ‘Giftmüll. So ein Wirbel’, Der Spiegel, 7 Aug. 1988.

⁸¹ ‘Betr.: Deutsches Schiff “MS Petersberg” mit kontaminierter Ladung vor Rumänien’, 1 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch. See also ‘Giftmüll. So ein Wirbel’, Der Spiegel, 7 Aug. 1988; ‘Geisterschiff wohlauf’, Tageszeitung, 3 Aug. 1988.

⁸² ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr. See 13/26.40.70-10. Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B295, 17596, BArch.

⁸³ ‘Betr.: Deutsches Schiff “MS Petersberg” mit kontaminierter Ladung vor Rumänien’, 1 Aug. 1988 notes that the topic has occupied German offices up to the highest levels, since it was an ‘explosive current foreign policy’ matter (‘gegenwärtiger außenpolitischer Brisanz des Themas’). See also ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, See 13/26.40.70-10, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988. Both documents are in B295/17595, BArch. See also ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Referat See 13/26.40.70-10-01/88, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschen Schiffen im Cross Trade MS “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁸⁴ ‘Betr.: Schiffstransporte mit gefährlichen Abfällen (MS Petersberg, MS Karin-B), Bezug: Ressortbesprechung am 25.8.1988, Teilnehmer AA, BMV, BMU, BK’, 25 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch.

⁸⁵ ‘Betr.: Deutsches Schiff “MS Petersberg” mit kontaminierter Ladung vor Rumänien’, 1 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BAK; ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, See 13/26.40.70-10, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B 295/17596, BArch.

⁸⁶ ‘Aus: Istanbul, Nr. 177 von 04.08.1988, 0930, An: Bonn AA, Betr.: MS “Petersberg”’, 4 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch; ‘Der Bundesminister für Verkehr an Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes Herrn MR Feier, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Schiff “Petersberg” von Wien in die Türkei’, 6 Oct. 1988, B 295/17596, BArch.

⁸⁷ ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr. See 13/26.40.70-10. Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁸⁸ ‘Betr.: Deutsches Schiff “MS Petersberg” mit kontaminierter Ladung vor Rumänien’, 1 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch.

⁸⁹ ‘Der Bundesminister für Verkehr to Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes, Betr.: Transport gefährlicher Güter mit Schiffen unter deutscher Flagge; hier: Bericht des BMW in der Kabinettsitzung am 21 Sept. 1988’; ‘Bezug: Kabinettvorlage des BMW vom 14.09.1988 – gl. Az.; Ergebnis der heutigen Staatssekretärbesprechung’, 16 Sep. 1988, B295/17547, BArch.

⁹⁰ ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr. See 13/26.40.70-10. Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschem Motorschiff “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁹¹ ‘Bonn AA to BPA, BMW-See, BMU (Betr.: Oesterr. Presse am 911.1988, hier: MS Petersberg)’, 9 Nov. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁹² ‘Betr.: Zusammenarbeit der Unterabteilung WA II mit Österreich’, 29 Aug. 1988, B295/17595, BArch. On the Cairo Guidelines and Principles for the Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Wastes, elaborated under the United Nations Environment Program in 1982, see Okereke, Chukwumerije, Global Justice and Neoliberal Environmental Governance: Ethics, Sustainable Development and International Co-operation (London: Routledge, 2008), 80Google Scholar; and Clapp, Toxic Exports, 39–40.

⁹³ ‘Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Referat See 13/26.40.70-10-01/88, Betr.: Sondermülltransport mit deutschen Schiffen im Cross Trade MS “Petersberg”’, 6 Oct. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁹⁴ See ‘Çevre hukuku çöpe yetmiyor’, Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988. The title reveals the Turkish concern (‘[current] environmental law is not sufficient to stop the waste’).

⁹⁵ ‘Wien diplo Nr. 1774 vom 09.11.1988 an bonn aa’, 9 Nov. 1988, B295/17596, BArch.

⁹⁶ Description of incident by Nielsen Shipping & Trading GmbH, untitled document, dated 17 Aug. 1988, addressed to ‘Rudolf Seiters, MdB und 1er parlam. Geschäftsführer der CDU/CSU, Bonn’ (Rudolf Seiters, Member of Parliament and First Parliamentary President of the CDU/CSU, Bonn), B295/17595, BArch. On the capitulations, see among others van den Boogert, The Capitulations and Pamuk, Uneven Centuries, 77–8.

⁹⁷ ‘Zehirli çöp oyunu’ Cumhuriyet, 6 Nov. 1988.

⁹⁸ It was a far cry from the calls for redistribution in the New International Economic Order (NIEO) of the 1970s. On the NIEO, by way of contrast, see the special issue of Humanity, 6, 1 (2015) devoted to the subject. See also Anghie, Anthony, ‘Inequality, Human Rights, and the New International Economic Order’, Humanity, 10, 3 (2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Garavini, Giuliano, ‘Completing Decolonization. The 1973 “Oil Shock” and the Struggle for Economic Rights’, The International History Review, 33, 3 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘L'Europa occidentale e il Nuovo Ordine economico internazionale (1974–1977)’, Ventunesimo Secolo, 6 (2006). On the wider dynamics of the period, see Christopher Dietrich, Oil Revolution: Anticolonial Elites, Sovereign Rights, and the Economic Culture of Decolonization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

⁹⁹ Christiane Grefe, ‘Gift für die Welt’, Die Zeit, 5 Aug. 1988, B.II.1, 999, AGG.

¹⁰⁰ On the connections between the Basel Convention and the toxic waste scandals of the 1980s, see Okereke, Global Justice, 81; and Gareau, Brian J. and Lucier, Cristina A., ‘Neoliberal Restructuring of the World Polity: The Weakening of the Montreal Protocol and Basel Convention in Historical Perspective’, Environmental Sociology, 4, 3 (2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clapp, Toxic Exports, 40; Smith, Challenging the Chip, 264; Montgomery, Mark, ‘Reassessing the Waste Trade Crisis: What Do We Really Know?’, The Journal of Environment and Development, 4, 1 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘BMU Pressemitteilung, 101/89, 11 Okt. 1989, “Bundeskabinett beschließt Zeichnung des basler Uebereinkommens über die Kontrolle der grenzüberschreitenden Verbringung gefährlicher Abfälle und ihrer Entsorgung”’, B.II.1, 999, AGG.

¹⁰¹ Clapp, Toxic Exports, 3.

¹⁰² Gourlay, World of Waste, 1992; Louis Blumberg and Robert Gottlieb, War on Waste: Can America Win Its Battle with Garbage? (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1989), 5.

¹⁰³ ‘Giftmüll: GAU im Bergbau’, Der Spiegel, 25 Feb. 1991.

¹⁰⁴ ‘“Waste colonialism”: world grapples with West's unwanted plastic’, The Guardian, 31 Dec. 2021.