WHAT DOES PLASTIC RECYCLING MEAN IN ZERO WASTE MANAGEMENT?

Technological developments brought by industrial revolutions brought environmental problems as well as development. Compared to 1900, the world population has increased 5 times, raw material consumption has doubled, and energy consumption per person has tripled. The linear economy approach, in which natural resources are consumed unlimitedly, energy is met almost entirely from fossil fuels, reuse applications are almost nonexistent, recycling is done with no added value and insufficient, and the amount of waste going to disposal is very high, has brought us to this day. However, our world is no longer able to meet the capacity of feeding and hosting the population living on it. World Overshoot Day was announced as July 28 in 2022, going further and further each year. This; It means that we have consumed the earth's resources that we should have consumed throughout the year much earlier and we are eating from the resources of the next year. For this reason, the concept of Circular Economy, which started especially in the EU and adopted in our country, emerged for the effective use of natural resources. Unlike linear economy, circular economy can be defined as “an economy model in which products, materials and resources are evaluated for as long as possible and waste generation is minimized”. In the circular economy, recycling rates and quality are high, disposal is almost non-existent, and energy is met from renewable resources.

In our country, the increasing production and consumption in recent years and the amount of waste that has increased accordingly have pushed our government to take an action in this regard. With the Zero Waste movement that started in 2017, a waste management and recycling campaign that spread all over our country has started. In the Zero Waste project, which was set out with the aim of preventing waste, collecting the wastes at the source separately according to their types, and preventing the waste of raw materials and energy by recycling these wastes, and leaving a clean but developed Turkey to the next generations, a total of 24.2 million tons of waste was brought into the economy. Plastic wastes constituted 4.1 million tons of these collected wastes. The plastics collected separately from other wastes at their source were first delivered to the collection-separation facilities according to their types, and then they were turned into raw materials again in the recycling facilities.

Plastics, which we encounter in all areas of life, have a very wide area of use today; Serum bottles, syringes, the lenses we put on our eyes, the pipes through which the water we drink can flow through our taps, the packaging of the food we eat, the greenhouse cover and drip irrigation systems necessary for the production of food in the field are all plastic. It is also widely used in automotive, white goods, electrical and electronic equipment, and construction materials. Since plastics have a wide range of uses, it is very important to produce raw materials again with the Zero Waste system and recycling from plastic waste. TV, fridge, washing machine etc. While it takes 1-5 years for plastics in durable consumer goods to become waste, and 5-25 years for construction plastics, plastic packaging materials become waste in about 1-3 months. In other words, the plastic waste problem is essentially a plastic packaging waste problem. Plastics collected from our homes, schools, hospitals, workplaces and public spaces with the zero waste project belong to the plastic packaging that has become this fast waste.

To feed, shelter, clothe, etc. the world population of 7.8 billion people. Plastic will continue to be produced to meet basic needs. However, in order to make production using less resources, it is necessary to adopt an eco-design approach, to produce plastic products in a way that we can use again and again, to prefer practices that will minimize waste generation, and to recycle the plastic waste generated. Recently, we read a lot that glass waste stays in nature for so many years, plastic waste stays in nature for so many years. However, the place of waste is not nature! They are raw materials that we can put through a new production process. When recycling plastics, much less energy, natural resources, etc. is consumed than when producing the original plastic raw material. you spend. You also save storage space. As a matter of fact, 4.1 million tons of plastic waste recycled with the Zero waste project and 168 thousand tons of greenhouse gas were prevented from being released into the air, 24 billion kWh of energy was saved, and 94 million m3 of storage area was saved.

These are great developments, but we are still at the beginning. In a world where natural resources are rapidly depleted and climate changes due to global warming are a fact of our lives, we need to change our "problematic" consumption habits. Our youth should also be “responsible consumers” who adopt the 3R (Reuse, Reduse, Recycle) approach to reuse, reduce waste and recycle. Recent studies show that the Z generation is especially conscious and aware of sustainability, environmental perception and recycling, and is more willing than our generation to actively participate in studies in this field to add added value to the world. Therefore, as a mother of a younger baby girl, I have full faith in our young people and I know that they will do their part better than us in our country's recycling and zero waste journey.