Our plastic waste, if collected, separated, and processed with a proper system; can become a strategic resource, not an environmental problem. As long as we act with this perspective, we both protect our environment and can provide high added value to the country's economy.
Şener Gencer
Aegean Plastic Industrialists Association (EGEPLASDER)
Chairman of the Board
Countries worldwide are divided into two categories: those who view their waste as “energy source and raw material” and those who view it as “garbage.” Unfortunately, we are among the countries in the second category. This is why we are discussing problems like plastic waste, which developed countries solved many years ago, under the guise of “environmentalism.”
However, plastic leads among the most environmentally friendly inventions of the 20th century. Plastic materials, present in every aspect and moment of our lives, can be recycled many times. At the end of its life, it has an energy value at least equivalent to fuel oil.
While plastic consumption per capita in Turkey varies between 70-80 kg, this figure is over 110 kilograms in Germany. Can you ever see plastic material carelessly thrown into seas, rivers, streets, or public living spaces in Germany? Of course not.
For these reasons, we need to understand and explain that recycling awareness in today's world is much more than an “environmental issue”; it is a “development issue.”
Especially in countries with limited energy and raw material resources like Turkey, it is undoubtedly not a choice but a necessity to use resources efficiently.
Recycling can be a new petrochemical investment
For our plastic sector, this necessity brings with it an opportunity as significant as establishing a petrochemical facility through recycling.
Our country is currently the second largest plastic producer in Europe and the sixth largest in the world. However, almost all of this production relies on imported petrochemical raw materials. The contribution of domestic production, which was at 24 percent in 2008, has now dropped to 7 percent. This situation not only limits the competitiveness of our sector but also increases its foreign dependency.
Establishing a traditional petrochemical facility, especially designing it based on integration, requires billions of dollars of investment.
However, we have a “raw material source” at hand: Our Plastic Waste.
When plastic waste is recovered through proper separation, classification, and technological processing, it can transform into both raw material and energy. This means if we utilize this potential correctly, it is actually possible for us to see a new petrochemical facility within our garbage.
Source Separation and Public Strategies
Of course, the realization of this transformation is not possible solely through the efforts of us industrialists or raw material producing companies. The state needs to develop supportive policies for this process, encourage source separation in waste management, and clarify quality standards for recycled raw materials.
A perspective that sees resources, not waste
The time has come to finance and operate our domestic petrochemical investment with our own waste.
Instead of striving to search for or build new facilities from scratch, we must realize that our resource is already at hand.
Children will educate…
Turkey urgently needs a national strategy for waste separation, recycling, and ultimately, energy production. The first step in implementing this strategy must be taken from kindergartens. It becomes difficult for a child reaching adolescence to develop an awareness of waste separation. “We need a management model where children educate their parents on this matter, not one where parents educate their children. Of course, the most important task falls to the municipalities.
This content has been translated using artificial intelligence technology.