The Turkish Ministry of environment and urbanisation, which oversees the massive recycling campaign, will focus on the recycling of food and unused, old or faulty textile products. Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan’s The Zero Waste Campaign was initiated in 2017 and embraced nationwide in the next two years.
First implemented in the Bestepe Presidential Complex and Ministries, the project later spread to municipalities across the country and started taking hold in private companies and public buildings, from hospitals to schools, according to a report.
The next stage of the campaign will be run by the Turkish Red Crescent, the country’s leading charity, which will oversee efforts for food and textile recycling. Red Crescent President Kerem Kinik said he discussed the issue with the first lady and they would cooperate with relevant authorities for a nationwide campaign.
Turkish Red Crescent is preparing a report for necessary regulations for transforming the country for food and textile recycling, he said. It will involve a partnership between public and private companies to establish a waste collection system for collecting excess food and textile products.
More than 2,500 tonne of clothes and fabric and similar leftovers from textile production houses go to waste daily as well. Kinik said that the Red Crescent will collect excess clothes people do not wear and often throw away. Recycling would not be limited to textiles and they are considering adding furniture, carpets and home appliances to the recycling chain, Kinik added. Turkey, which managed to recycle more than half of its used plastic bottles in 2017 and lags behind European Union countries in recycling, aims to increase the recycling rate to 35 per cent in the next five years.
