Turkish ministry launches recycling campaign in hotels, restaurants and cafes

The campaign, dubbed HoReCa, was mainly initiated in big cities like Istanbul, the Aegean city of İzmir and the northwestern province of Bursa, where such businesses create the largest amount of packaging waste, especially glass waste, according to the statement. 

“We have seen that the collection rates of glass waste in hotels, restaurants and cafes in such cities have increased at least 50 percent over what they were before,” it added. 

“One of the key waste management strategies of our country is waste recycling… Under the leadership of our ministry, Turkey’s recycling activities now add 3 billion Turkish Liras in value to the economy in annual terms and create 60,000 direct jobs. Our target is to increase this value to 10 billion liras and create 100,000 jobs by 2023,” said Environment Minister Mehmet Özhaseki. 

He also noted waste management services, offered mainly by municipalities in Turkey, carry a fairly high cost, adding that such costs can be minimized by using the appropriate equipment, launching awareness campaigns and collecting waste in high frequencies from the main sources.