According to data from Europe’s climate change service, the global atmosphere held more water vapour in August than in any previously recorded month. This spike, driven by global heating and the El Niño weather pattern, significantly increases the risk of extreme rainfall and severe heatwaves worldwide. As a warmer atmosphere retains more moisture, the frequency of volatile weather events is expected to escalate.
For industrial operators, this is not merely an ecological concern but a direct threat to operational continuity. Extreme heatwaves place immense pressure on power grids, leading to potential outages and reduced productivity, particularly in manufacturing hubs like Türkiye. Conversely, intense rainfall events can disrupt transport networks, delay shipping, and flood waste storage facilities, causing material degradation.
Why it matters to our readers
For UK waste exporters and Turkish plastics recyclers, these shifting climate patterns introduce severe logistical and operational risks. In Türkiye, extreme summer heatwaves increasingly threaten factory working conditions and cooling systems required for polymer processing, potentially raising energy costs. In the UK, localised flooding can disrupt municipal waste collections, tightening the supply of post-consumer feedstock. Furthermore, damp or contaminated feedstock resulting from heavy rainfall can complicate the sorting and washing processes, ultimately impacting the yield and quality of recycled polymers like rPET and HDPE.
Practical takeaway
Recyclers and waste managers must climate-proof their supply chains. This involves investing in covered storage to protect feedstock from heavy rainfall, reviewing facility cooling systems to handle prolonged heatwaves, and diversifying transport routes to mitigate weather-related logistics delays between the UK and Türkiye.
