Turkey: 7M tons of packaging waste recycled in 14 years

By Ayse Sensoy Boztepe

ANKARA (AA) - Nearly 7 million tons of packaging waste has been recycled in Turkey in the past 14 years, according to an environmental activist.

We were declared the first authorized organization on recycling of packaging waste in 2005, said Mete Imer, secretary general of Environmental Protection and Packaging Waste Recovery and Recycling (CEVKO).

He went on to say that this has generated 35 billion Turkish liras ($6.1 billion) for the economy.

"We carry out various activities in cooperation with public and private sectors in order to spread awareness about recycling and encourage the habit of collecting recyclable wastes separately at the source," he added.

*Writing by Burak Bir