Slow recycler Turkey seeks better uses for its trash

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ISTANBUL, Dec 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish woman Tulay Gercek stands in
front of a vending machine at a busy Istanbul metro station but instead of
putting coins into a slot, she crams plastic bottles into a hole.

Every bottle or can Gercek places in the machine gives extra credit on her
Istanbul card — the universal ticket for using public transport in the city
— in a pilot project by the municipality to promote recycling.

“I’m bringing plastic bottles every day,” she said at Sishane station,
where she had brought a large bag of bottles and cans.

“In the past I used to throw them into the bin. This is a very good
project. There should be more,” she said. “I believe it will help raise
public awareness a little bit.”

The machines are in place at three metro stations in Turkey’s mega city and
officials hope to expand to more in the future.

It’s so far a relatively rare step in a country of over 80 million people
with a notoriously bad record on recycling and waste.

Activists say this must change fast and there are signs, albeit tentative,
that the authorities are starting to understand the need to change profligate
habits.

– ‘Polluting the soil’ –

Turkey ranks 108th with a score of 52.96 in the 2018 Environmental
Performance Index (EPI), produced by the Yale Center for Environmental Law
and Policy, that analyses the environmental performance of 180 nations.

Top of the eco-chart is Switzerland, with a score of 87.42, indicating a
strong showing across most issues, especially climate, energy and air
pollution.

Oya Guzel, of the Mind Your Waste (Copune Sahip Cik) foundation, said
Turkey was producing around 31 million tonnes of waste annually, out of which
11 percent was recycled.

“We are polluting the soil and the environment with plastics, metals and
glass which remain in the natural environment for years,” she told AFP.

“We have a target of 35 percent (of all waste to be recycled) by five years
from now, which is also low but we believe progress can be made” in that
time.

She said it was consumers in the end who have to decide what is recyclable.

“We could turn it into raw material, or throw away litter and make it
trash,” Guzel said, urging consumers to give up on disposable materials.

“We use a plastic bag for an average time of 12 minutes. It becomes trash
12 minutes later.”

The Istanbul municipality told AFP that, of the non-recycled waste, 61
percent was burned to produce electricity and the remaining 28 percent buried
with no use.

– End to free bags –

Green policies do not appear as yet to be a major vote winner in Turkey but
there are signs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now paying some attention to the issue.

Environment and Urbanisation Minister Murat Kurum said there would be a
compulsory charge for plastic bags from January, bringing Turkey into line
with other European countries.

That would be a revolution in a country which uses plastic bags massively.

Kurum said that every Turkish citizen uses, on average, 440 bags a year,
adding the aim was to reduce this to 40 by 2025.

The recycling campaign is also strongly backed by Erdogan’s wife Emine, who
said at a conference on zero waste that the target was a “more liveable
environment” and a “stronger economy by classifying the waste at its source
and recycling”.

She said Erdogan’s presidential palace was leading the way with its staff
now trained in how to recycle waste on site.

“We have not had garbage trucks at the presidential complex for a long
time,” she said.

– ‘Will get better’ –

At a sorting facility on the outskirts of Istanbul, organic waste is
separated, processed and used as fertiliser in parks and gardens throughout
the city, while non-organic materials, like glass, plastics and metals, are
recycled.

But Ibrahim Halil Turkeri, the city’s recycling chief, said that “greater
responsibility falls to individuals.”

“If the waste is classified at its source, cleaner waste will reach our
facility and factories, and they will have better value as secondary raw
materials, and all will have been recycled.”

Ahmet Hamdi Zembil, environment engineer at waste management company ISTAC,
said gas from burning organic waste can be transformed into electricity.

But he added that classifying at source was crucial so that synthetic waste
was not mixed in.

“We have disposed of seven million tonnes of waste here over the last year
and produced 400 million kilowatt hours of electricity,” he said.

Back at Sishane, Gercek slotted her plastic bottles into the machine,
realising to her chagrin that only 0.03 lira is given for each can or bottle,
meaning she would need to recycle 87 cans or bottles for a single free trip
that normally costs 2.60 lira ($0.50).

“But still, it is a start. I believe this system will get better,” she
said.