ÇEVKO Foundation Celebrates Its 31st Anniversary

ÇEVKO Foundation Celebrated Its 31st Anniversary At an international conference held on 1 November 2022 marking ÇEVKO Foundation's 31st anniversary, the topic of extended producer responsibility in the circular economy was addressed comprehensively with the participation of national and international speakers from government, civil society, and the business sector. During the conference, the 2022 Green Dot Industry Awards and Green Dot Press Awards were also presented. ÇEVKO Foundation, which combines expert industry initiative and effective civil society organization identities, and which in recent years has been among the leading institutions providing intellectual leadership on "fighting climate crisis" and "transition to circular economy" in our country, celebrated its 31st anniversary with an international conference. The conference titled "Latest Developments in the European Union's Transition to Circular Economy, Extended Producer Responsibility and Digital Solutions Proposals in Waste Management" featuring speakers from Turkey and abroad drew strong participant interest. The conference was organized in hybrid format with physical attendance in the conference hall and live follow-up options via the internet in Turkish/English. The Green Dot Industry and Press Awards were also presented during the conference. The conference, which was broadcast live on Çevre TV, was moderated by News Coordinator Orkun Yazgan and Program Coordinator Deniz Şafak on behalf of Çevre TV, with simultaneous interpretation provided by İntegris Çeviri.

ÇEVKO Foundation Board Chairman Okyar Yayalar made the following remarks in his opening address:

"ÇEVKO Foundation was established 31 years ago by companies that adopted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Turkey. During this period, we have carried out education and awareness-raising work to create a recycling culture in society, collaborated with public authorities for legal framework, and worked with municipalities and licensed collection and sorting facilities to ensure packaging waste is collected separately at source and recycled. In recent years, we have focused on intellectual leadership on "fighting climate crisis" and "transition to circular economy." The importance of the recycling concept we have been trying to establish in Turkey has grown even more today. In the last five years, while extended producer responsibility has become widespread across Europe in parallel with the transition to circular economy, we are witnessing this topic being abandoned in our country. I hope our conference, organized to examine this issue in depth and to produce beneficial recommendations for our country, will be productive."  

ÇEVKO Foundation General Secretary Mete İmer, who also provided general information about the conference content in his remarks, continued as follows:

"In ÇEVKO Foundation's journey to date, adopting the Green Dot, the symbol of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), being part of PRO Europe, which is formed by organizations using this symbol, being among the founders of EXPRA, and finally becoming a UN Global Compact member, stem from our mission to closely follow developments in the world and share them with our stakeholders. At a circular economy congress we organized in 2017, which was perhaps Turkey's first, a call was made for preparing a plan for Turkey's transition to circular economy. Following the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, our calls for its ratification by our parliament gained momentum with the publication of the EU Green Deal. Today we are pleased to see that Turkey, as a party to the Paris Climate Agreement, has set a carbon neutrality target for 2053 and is working on climate legislation and regulations. The vision we put forward when embarking on our 31-year journey—to create a recycling culture in our country and establish the habit of collecting consumption waste separately at source—and managing this vision through the EPR model have gained importance worldwide with the transition to circular economy."  

Servet Yıldırım, UN Global Compact Turkey Board Member, speaking at the conference opening, made the following remarks on the subject:

"UN Global Compact aims to create concrete and measurable impact with responsible companies on the path of sustainable development, and does this by mobilizing companies in areas where business has the highest transformative impact and by measuring progress. The new strategy of UN Global Compact (United Nations Global Principles Agreement) carries the goal of enabling the collective in all areas. We provide various tools, platforms and resources while also taking into account local needs and capacities." Oscar Martin, Board Chairman of EXPRA (Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, stated: "In 28 countries with a total population of 200 million, we provide the recycling of 18 million tons of packaging waste annually. We contribute to the European Union's climate and circularity targets."   Didem Artunç Ünaltekin, Trade Expert at the Turkish Ministry of Commerce EU Single Market and Green Deal Department, expressed the following: "Circular economy, which is essential for both climate change and the circularity and sustainability of our industry, is much discussed today, and ÇEVKO Foundation, with the contributions of its valued members, has been fulfilling its responsibilities in this area for a full 31 years. In the near future, many products in our industry will require the use of minimum quantities of recycled products. Therefore, it is very important for consumers to embrace this new usage pattern and awareness at the grassroots level. I greatly value ÇEVKO Foundation's work in this regard—its public service announcements, computer games and magazines for children—and I hope it will continue." Following the opening remarks, the Green Dot Industry and Press Awards Ceremony began. The Green Dot brand, which ÇEVKO Foundation exclusively represents in Turkey, is shown among the most successful implementation examples of the Extended Producer Responsibility model worldwide. ÇEVKO Foundation Green Dot Industry Awards aim to encourage industrial establishments' contributions to environmental sustainability. Green Dot Press Awards are presented to press and broadcast organizations, journalists, and individuals who have gained public appreciation through demonstrating sensitivity in raising public awareness and providing information on environmental issues and recycling.