Daily Hürriyet launches environmental campaign to protect natural assets

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet

Turkish daily Hürriyet has launched an environmental campaign under which distributors of the newspaper will provide a free copy of the paper to anyone that turns in three old copies for recycling.

Hürriyet’s campaign, launched together with the Turkish Foundation for the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA), aims to protect forests and raise consciousness on recycling by giving a free Hürriyet newspaper to whoever brings in any three previous editions of the paper.

The trailblazing campaign will last through October, while income from the campaign will be donated to TEMA.

Deniz Ataç, the chairperson of TEMA’s board, said threats to natural assets had grown because of input needs and the pressure of population density, meaning that recycling had become important.

“Recycling chopped or imported trees will increase our assets. That is why it is significant that old newspapers are collected and brought dry and devoid of any foodstuffs,” said Ataç.

Stating that Hürriyet’s efforts at raising awareness for recycling was an important societal duty, Ataç said that once the awareness reached a sufficient level and people started disposing of their trash with recycling in mind, an important step in protecting natural assets would be taken.

The recycling of a ton of paper prevents the release of 12,400 cubic meters of carbon dioxide, while also preserving 17 adult trees – which supplies oxygen needs for 34 people – and 37 cubic meters of water, which is the amount of water that three families use in a month, Ataç said.

Around 50 percent of Turkey’s 2012 paper consumption, or 5.5 million tons of paper, was recycled. The amount of paper used in Turkey in 2012 per person was 80 kilograms, whereas this figure was 150 kilograms in European countries, 71 percent of which was recycled. Some 450,000 tons of paper was used for newspapers in Turkey in 2012, while only around half of the consumed papers were recycled.