We Have Recycled 100 Million Packages So Far. in Türkiye

Turkey's Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum announced that over 100 million beverage packages have been collected through the country's deposit return system since it was rolled out nationwide on July 1. The top five provinces for package collection were also revealed. In a social media post, Kurum said 100,182,985 beverage packages had been collected as of August 11 under the Deposited Packaging (DOA) system. "Nature won 100 million times, he wrote.

"Under the auspices of the esteemed Emine Erdogan, we brought the Zero Waste approach, which spread from Turkey to the world, into every area of daily life with our Deposit Return System DOA. We have recycled 100 million packages so far. We will further grow DOA, which our nation loves very much, expand it and increase its impact.

Of the collected packages, 66,146,145 were PET bottles, 17,043,567 were aluminum beverage cans and 16,993,273 were glass bottles. The five provinces where the most packaging was collected were Antalya, Istanbul, Kocaeli, Adana and Izmir, in that order. Under the DOA system, citizens receive 1 lira per package when they bring it to a collection machine.

The system serves state goals of efficiency, environmental protection and economic benefit. However, the single-use packaging problem created by the plastics and beverage industries over the years continues.