Electronic waste

Home renovation debris and assorted rubbish including toilet bowls, old sofas and broken TVs are piling up on Mount Aegaleo on the outskirts of Athens, endangering the sparse remaining greenery and also increasing the risk of wildfires.

The European Union has put forward a plan to impose binding targets on its 27 member states to slash food waste from households, retailers and restaurants 30 percent this decade.

Brussels estimates the bloc generates almost 59 million tons of food waste a year - or 131 kilograms per person.

That represents a loss of some 132 billion euros ($144 billion).

The Zero Waste Project, which aims to reduce the volume of non-recyclable waste, has achieved an economic gain of 96 billion Turkish Liras ($3.7 billion), Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Minister Mehmet Özhaseki has said.

The European Commission and the Turkish trade and environment ministries have discussed the EU's Waste Shipment Regulation draft in Brussels, with Ankara demanding the end of waste shipment from Europe to Türkiye.

The Turkish delegation emphasized that the prevention of illegal waste shipment and its damage to the environment is a "shared goal."

Shortly before the end of 2022, notices were published for the construction of two important waste management infrastructures. These are the Waste Treatment Units (WTUs) of the Eastern Sector of Western Macedonia and Larissa, with a budget of 241.9 million euros and 54.6 million euros.

Some 53 tons of waste have been collected in nine months within the scope of a project initiated to carry out awareness training on marine cleaning in the Marmara Sea.

According to the report, between September 2021 and June 2022, 52.5 tons of waste, equivalent to the daily waste generated by approximately 46,000 people, were collected and recycled.

The annual amount of plastic waste produced in Turkey in 2021 is nearly 5.6 million tons, according to an academic publication, which underlines Turkey as the ninth country that produces the most plastic waste in the world.

The World Health Organization says overuse of gloves, "moon suits" and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus have spurred a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.

New production and business models that emphasize innovation and sustainability were discussed at the "Circular Economy: Don't Waste the Future" session on the second day of the Uludağ Economy Summit.

Some 280 Olympic pool volume of wastewater is being discharged from Ergene River in Turkey's northwest to the Marmara Sea every day, according to Greenpeace Mediterranean.

"Industrial wastes had made the Ergene River one of the most polluted streams in the world. Now, these wastes are carried to the depths of the Marmara Sea by pipes," the NGO said in a statement.