While the first year of the Zero Waste Project was left behind, which was implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's wife Emine Erdoğan, The Zero Waste Summit was held in the Presidential Complex where all aspects of the project were handled.
Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Murat Kurum, the Minister of Environment and Urbanization participated in the "Zero Waste Summit" held in Beştepe Nation Culture and Congress Center.
Emine Erdoğan made a speech about the importance of the Zero Waste Project under her auspices, and touched upon the project contributes to a more livable environment as well as contributes to Turkey's economy. Erdoğan emphasized that the project became widespread rapidly within a year of its application and said “The project, which we started in October 2017, has reached a beautiful stage with the diligent efforts of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The works we have started at Presidential Complex, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and ministry buildings, spread all over the country. Within the scope of the project, we received very nice supports from all segments of the society for a year. Our industrialists, businessmen and universities have installed exemplary systems in their own institutions. I congratulate each and every one of them for their environmental awareness. Now, the municipalities should take part on a large scale. Our municipalities need to collect and recycle the wastes that our citizens decompose in their homes with the same logic. The Municipalities should leave wild storage and focus on recovery rather than storage or incineration. Integrated facilities that convert waste into energy or compost should be in all our cities. We also have to start the change, leaving aside the disposable culture. The first stage of this is our individual attitudes.”.
Minister Kurum who wishes the summit held under theme of “For a Strong Economy and a Green Nature” to be beneficial decleared that one year history of the project, the stage reached, the results taken and the future of the project will be discussed.
Referring to the Environmental Mobilization that began in 1994 under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister Kurum said:
Thanks to AKP government, our country has come to a very different position from the garbage mountains and explosions, from masks distributed by newspapers as promotions due to polluted air, to a situation y separating, converting and even generating energy from garbage. Again, our country is a country that has stripped from the period of municipalities storing garbage randomly and has switched to advanced technology of regular storage. Turkey has ceased to wake up in the morning with headlines of 'attention colibacillosis' and become the capital of tourism with its international award-winning beaches and clean coasts.
Stating that natural resources are becoming increasingly depleted, Kurum stressed that energy consumption per capita has increased 3 times and raw material usage has doubled compared to 50 years ago.
Kurum pointed out that if this rapid increase could not be stopped, higher numbers would be seen, and only by changing the habits, the problem could be solved together.
PLASTIC BAGS TAKE 100 YEARS TO DECOMPOSE
Kurum, stated out that according to the World Bank reports, the amount of domestic waste, which is 1.3 billion tons per year, is expected to reach 2.2 billion tons in 2025 and said "It is possible to see similar increases in our country. The amount of waste reached 31 million tons. In 2023, this number is expected to increase to 38 million tons".
By sharing the details of the services such as waste water treatment plant, blue flag beaches, solid waste landfill facilities, Kurum said; "We have removed waste from being a priority problem with our recent studies on the environment. And we have started to see waste as a resource that will turn into raw materials and new products."
Kurum said that as the Ministry, they had previously reviewed the works on waste management, they found what they could do at this point with the findings and began to produce solutions and that the Zero Waste Project emerged as such.
WHAT IS ZERO WASTE?
Minister Murat Kurum described zero waste as "to consume as little as possible and create less waste, store and collect the waste at the source separately, to recycle separately collected wastes, to use organic waste as compost and fertilizer and not to send any waste to regular storage and incineration.”
In his speech, answering Kurum to the question "Why waste zero?", said:
“We have implemented the Zero Waste system by providing conscious production and consumption in order to prevent waste while preserving natural resources, to create new business opportunities and to compete with developed countries by using wastes as raw materials within the scope of circular economy, to eliminate the damages to the environment by protecting the environment and human health, to reduce pollution costs, to have a more environmentally friendly lifestyle by increasing the sensitivity of our citizens.”
Kurum, stated that the project was launched last year in the Presidential Complex and the ministry service building said; "Later, this avalanche movement has now become applicable in 7 thousand 162 public institutions. Our goal is to spread Zero Waste system all over Turkey."
REGULATION WILL START IN 2019
Emphasizing that the most important issue that will lead to the success of the project is ownership of the project by local governments, Kurum stated out that municipalities should not only collect and store household waste but also establish separate collection systems for recyclable waste such as paper-cardboard, plastic and metal glass.
Stating out that as of 2019 Zero Waste Regulation will also come into effect, Kurum said; "According to this regulation, our municipalities will move to dual collection system and serve to collect waste separately. We have given municipalities time to implement this application until the end of 2019. We will closely monitor and support the practices of our municipalities."
Pointing out that they have started to work on plastic bags which constitute a significant environmental problem in order to strengthen zero waste application in every sense, Kurum said:
"As of January 1, 2019, we are making plastic bags chargeable and we aim to reduce the use of plastic bags. We will reduce the use of plastic bags, which is currently 440 per person per year, to 90 by the end of 2019 and 40 by the end of 2025, and we will further reduce our annual use of bags in the process."
ZERO WASTE AWARDS FIND OWNERS
At the Zero Waste Award ceremony held at the summit, Sustainability Policies and Support to the Zero Waste Project award was given to Turkish Airlines, Zero Waste- Good Future Award to Boğaziçi University, Zero Waste Social Responsibility Award to TEMA Foundation, Zero Waste Production Award to Sütaş, Zero Waste Innovation Award to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality ISBAK and Zero Waste Media Award was given to TRT.
The awards made from recyclable glass were presented by Emine Erdoğan to their owners.
AWARD FROM FAO TO EMİNE ERDOĞAN
At the award ceremony also the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Central Asia Sub-Regional Coordinator and Representative of Turkey Viorel Gutu, Emine Erdogan, the environmental awareness projects and on the occasion of October 17th World Food Day, FAO's "Zero Waste, Zero Hunger" themed awards presented he.
Minister Murat Institution Emine Erdogan, Fatih Sultan Mehmet's environment edict gave the table as a gift.
After the ceremony, Emine Erdoğan and the Minister Institution, souvenir photo taken with the award-winning participants.
President of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Sahin special session of the summit that begins the next session of the afternoon, "Zero Waste Best Practices", "Zero Waste Practices Sector Reflections" and "Social Dimensions of Zero Waste Management" continued with a panel entitled.
Family, Labor and Social Services Minister Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, mayors, public, local governments, private sector, representatives of non-governmental organizations and other interested parties attended the opening of the summit.
