Turkish recycling project collects 1.6 billion units of packaging waste

A recycling project in Turkey which involved two glass manufacturers collected more than 1.6 billion units of packaging waste in its first year.

The EKOMAT project included Turkish glass producers GCA and Park Cam alongside the Bircam Foundation, involved 11,000 people overall and contributed TRY1.3 million to the national economy.

Each item of beverage packaging that was collected were separated at source and collected through Ekomats.

During the emptying of Ekomats, electric collection vehicles were mostly preferred, resulting in fewer polluting gases released into the environment.

By sending the recovered products to the municipality's regular storage facility, waste equivalent to 45 garbage trucks was saved in terms of space.

GCA General Manager Dr. Abdullah Gayret said: “As GCA, we follow technological developments to prevent environmental pollution, aim to recycle waste as much as possible, and dispose of non-recyclable waste without harming the environment.

“This is because our project is of great importance not only in terms of sustainability, but also in terms of economy.

“Therefore, we have implemented this project that aims to protect the environment in every aspect, raise public awareness about sustainability, and encourage the integration of recycling as a part of daily life.”

As part of the project, 34 Ekomat deposit machines were placed at 15 locations in Yalova to achieve 100% recycling of glass, plastic, and metal beverage packaging.

The project enabled citizens to earn points worth money through a mobile application by recycling glass, metal, and plastic, contributing to the economy while also supporting the reduction of the carbon footprint.

Dr Gayret said: “With our EKOMAT project aimed at raising consumer awareness to recycle packaging materials, we have created an exemplary model.

“With the ability to instantly monitor data thanks to its local software, our project is ‘the digital transformation of recycling’, and our goal is to introduce the culture of packaging recycling to our country through this two-year project.”

Park Cam Deputy General Manager Ergin Öz said: “Cullet is the food source of glass packaging factories.

"The more we feed cullet into furnaces, the less natural resource use, the longer the furnace life, the lower the energy cost and the lower the carbon footprint, the more responsibilities towards the environment are fulfilled.

“While glass packaging manufacturers in Europe use cullet at a rate of 60%-70%, cullet usage rate in our country cannot reach even 10%.

"With the Ekomat Project, cullet of the quality used by European manufacturers comes to our factories and new bottles are produced. It is a very important development for the future.”