Recovery share period starts for packaged products

ISTANBUL

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanization has decided to collect taxes from manufacturers and importers of oil, electronic goods, pharmaceuticals and beverage packaging under the name of “recovery share.”

Following the decrease in the use of plastic shopping bags, Turkey is now expected to reach the European level in the recycling of glass, plastic, wooden packages and electrical and electronic waste and drugs, which are now recyclable.

With the implementation of this tax, the companies will pay a recovery share for the packaging and the only way to avoid paying this share is to require customers to pay a deposit on recyclable packaging.

The more that companies collect these packages, the more they will be able to offset their payments to the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance for their recovery share.

The Ministry argued that the implementation of the recovery share will not lead to an increase in residents’ consumption of products, while the Chamber of Environmental Engineers pointed out that the contribution must be transferred to the recycling system.

A number of amendments in 2018 were made to the Environmental Law such as recovery share, 25-kuruş plastic shopping bags, deposit requirement and obligation to employ environmental engineers.

The regulation on the acquisition of the recovery share was published in the Official Gazette.

As of Jan. 1, recovery share will be taken from manufacturers and importers for non-depository packaged products.

Alcoholic, non-alcoholic beverages, yogurt and milk boxes, which are valuable recyclables and are expected to be directly involved in the recycling system.

Meanwhile, Mehmet Emin Birpınar, deputy minister of environment and urbanization, made a statement on Twitter about the plastic bag fees.

“There’s no price-rise of the bags in 2020. The fee of the bag will continue to be 25 kuruş ($0.04) in 2020. The decision of the Ministry is clear. The decision to remain on 25 kuruş on 31 December 2019 was concluded with the signature of our Minister Murat Kurum,” Birpınar wrote.