ISTANBUL – Stating that 6 million tons of paper waste is generated every year in Turkey, Vedat Kılıç, President of the Association of Recyclable Waste Materials Industrialists (TÜDAM), said, “We can evaluate 45 percent of this. The market value of 55 percent is 1.5 billion liras. This is a very serious amount of money. We are exempt from this, and we spend 450 to 500 million liras to collect this material and bury it in the ground through local administrations. In this way, there is also an environmental problem.”
Kılıç, who visited DÜNYA Newspaper, reminded that the environment chapter with the European Union (EU) was announced in 2004 and pointed out that many legislations were prepared in this regard. Kılıç stated that the general purpose of the legislations is to determine the stakeholders of the responsibilities in the process from production to disposal, and informed that their association is one of the stakeholders in recycling and that the issue that concerns them the most is packaging waste.
Environmental problems
Kılıç explained that according to 2012-2013 figures, 3 million 100 thousand tons of paper is produced in Turkey and pointed out that 3 million tons of paper is imported. Stating that 6 million tons of paper is used and wasted annually in Turkey, Kılıç said the following: “We can utilize 45 percent of this. The market value of 55 percent is 1.5 billion liras. This is a very serious money. We are exempt from this, and we spend 450 to 500 million liras to collect this material and bury it in the ground through local administrations. In this way, there is also an environmental problem.” Emphasizing that the biggest reason for the high rate of waste collection in Europe is the principle of producer responsibility, Kılıç said that the company that produces bottled water is obliged to collect its waste after placing it on the market. Kılıç said that the costs are fully covered by that company and noted that while Europe provides 200 Euros per ton for waste collection, Turkey provides support at a rate of 1 in 10 of this figure.
Germany is zeroing out disposal
Stating that professional companies collect all the waste generated in industries, Kılıç continued as follows: “The rest is collected by street collectors. Until we reach a GDP of 25 thousand dollars, these street collectors will not end. We should definitely evaluate them within the existing system. They collect according to prices. When paper prices reach 200 liras per ton, street collectors do not collect paper. Because it reflects less on them. Street collectors make a positive contribution to waste collection. In Turkey, more than a thousand businesses are licensed to manage waste. Germany is zeroing out landfilling in waste. For example, 20 percent of waste is packaging. It separates these. It also separates materials that can burn to a certain extent but cannot be used in recycling. On the other hand, there is organic waste. It utilizes the packaging in the recycling industry, obtains energy from the combustible materials, and regains energy from organic waste by gasification. The remaining hides are used in fertilizer. When we look at it, we see that it recycles 95 percent of the waste. It both reduces its environmental impact and brings it into the economy. We cannot get full efficiency in packaging waste, which is the simplest part. In other words, we can utilize only 10 to 15 percent of the waste generated at home. The rest is stored.”
Sustainability would have been designed with money spent on imports
TÜDAM President Vedat Kılıç said that there are those who argue that the only solution for the recycling industry is to import waste, adding that importing paper is the easiest thing to do. Stating that the rate of waste collection in Europe is very high, Kılıç said, “Europe already collects waste, it will sell it to us, but if we do this, how will we design sustainability in the country? In 7 years, we have given 100 million dollars of money abroad. If we used this resource to increase the collection efficiency in our own country, we would not need to import. The collection rate in Europe is 80 percent. While this is the case, pursuing imports would harm both the country and themselves.” Kılıç also stated that the capacity of paper recycling in Turkey will increase in 2015, and that the current need of 2.5 million tons will increase to more than 3 million tons with 2 new investments to be commissioned next year.