The recycling sector, which had difficulty in accessing waste due to the stoppage of the wheels in the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, did not stop its work. While many companies operating in the sector worked at 50 percent capacity during this period, they entered the normalization process as of June 1. On the other hand, the representatives of the sector, which is not included in the scope of force majeure, are launching a project to collect more domestic packaging waste at its source and bring it into the economy, which is the bleeding wound of the sector. TÜDAM, one of the umbrella organizations of the recycling sector, is working with Prof. Erdem Görgün, a faculty member at Istanbul Technical University, who also contributed as a consultant to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for the introduction of the deposit application in Turkey. In addition to TÜDAM, the project is being prepared in cooperation with other NGOs, authorized institutions, software companies and stakeholder municipalities. TÜDAM Chairman of the Board of Directors Vedat Kılıç said that by examining the work of successful countries abroad, a project suitable for Turkey is wanted to be created and the financial support of the project is planned to be provided by the Istanbul Development Agency.
Vedat Kılıç pointed out that no successful results have been achieved in the collection, sorting and recycling of household packaging waste and said, “We do not have a financial support defined for the collection and sorting of household packaging waste in a healthy and sustainable manner. In the current situation, municipalities and licensed enterprises make agreements for the separate collection of packaging waste at source; however, since there is no guarantee in the long term, enterprises refrain from investing in this area. As a result, household packaging waste cannot be collected properly and is buried in municipal landfills together with other garbage. As a result, we bury a value of approximately 10 billion TL annually. As we are deprived of the economic value of waste, the recycling sector has to import waste from abroad as it has difficulty in finding waste raw materials that can be processed. We aim to implement this project to reverse this negative situation. We plan to launch the project as a pilot project in municipalities. If the pilot applications are successful, the results and project outputs will be presented to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for implementation as a role model.”
Targeted to be launched in 2022
Sharing details about the planned pilot applications, Vedat Kılıç said, “We will initiate pilot studies with stakeholders to collect and sort packaging waste and create a sustainable financing model. Many parameters such as investments, costs, revenues, waste collection rates, quality of the products obtained will be reported within the framework of pilot studies. At the final stage, we will present this report to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization as a model. We hope that the Ministry will accept the model and demand its implementation across the country. At this stage, as TÜDAM, we envision to realize the project with the awareness of our responsibility to the society.” If the project is accepted, it is aimed to be completed within 18 months and put into practice in 2022.
“Packaging use has increased dramatically during the pandemic”
We need infrastructure and facility investments to ensure that waste is collected separately at source and recycled into the economy. These investments should not be expected to be made by the public sector. Therefore, our main objective in creating the project in this context is to provide investible market conditions for investors operating in the waste management sector. If we can create the right financing model and provide predictable market conditions for the private sector to invest, sector representatives will not hesitate to make long-term investments.” Vedat Kılıç also informed that if the project is successful, Turkey could become an exporter of waste instead of an importer. Kılıç, on the other hand, stated that it is uncertain when the deposit system will be implemented and said, “It is difficult for this system to catch up with 2021. The use of packaging has increased dramatically during the pandemic. Packaging waste has also started to increase. We need to urgently establish a system to collect this waste.”
35 million tons of household waste is generated annually
Turkey generates around 35 million tons of domestic waste annually. Approximately 8 million tons of this is recyclable waste. As of today, at most 1.5 million tons of this can be collected. Today, even in the already collected and sorted garbage, 25 percent of recyclable waste remains and cannot be sorted. Turkey imports 1 million tons of paper and 500 thousand tons of plastic waste annually, while burying approximately 6.5 million tons of its own waste.