Aegean Exporters' Association Receives "Zero Waste Certificate"

Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri declared 2020 as "Sustainability Year" with the aim of leaving a more livable and greener world for future generations, and crowned the "Sustainability Year" by obtaining a "Zero Waste Certificate." Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri Coordinator Chairman Jak Eskinazi stated that they joined the Zero Waste Project initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization 1.5 years ago, established the necessary Zero Waste Management System within this scope, and successfully passed inspections to become the first exporter associations in Turkey to qualify for a "Zero Waste Certificate." Eskinazi emphasized that they operate with the priority of acting consciously in waste generation and preventing unnecessary waste creation, saying: "Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri' work on zero waste dates back many years. Twenty years ago, we transferred our correspondence to an electronic environment through our intranet system. We have been sending circulars to our members via email for 20 years. With the Zero Waste Project, we implemented a system for separating waste at source and converting it into recovery." [caption id="attachment_112791" align="aligncenter"] Waste is separated at source at Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri and sent for recycling.[/caption]   Stating that Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri' next goal is to obtain an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Certificate, Eskinazi continued: "Our most important objective going forward is to develop awareness among our members in this direction. We will organize training for this purpose and increase the competencies of our staff in this area. We will focus on efforts to present the financing and support that our exporters will need. We are closely monitoring developments related to the European Green Deal."

10 percent of EİB staff commute to work by bicycle

Summarizing internal sustainability practices and waste management processes, Eskinazi continued: "We promoted the use of bicycles. We created a bicycle parking area and changing room at the EİB service building. We have enabled 10 percent of our staff to commute to work by bicycle. We separated non-hazardous waste at source and sent it for recycling. We separated hazardous waste (fluorescent, cartridges, waste oil) and medical waste and sent them to disposal companies. We collected electronic and electrical waste separately and organized controlled disposal of mask and glove waste within the Covid-19 safe service process. We switched to using wired mice to reduce battery consumption, reused office supplies. We modernized our facilities for water and electricity saving."

In the 1.5 years since Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri began the Zero Waste Project, it has achieved savings of 26 trees, 2,840 liters of oil, 500 kg of raw materials, 50 liters of biodiesel, 44 cubic meters of water, and 12,800 kWh of energy through recycling and recovery.

Following the measures it took against Covid-19 in August, Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri obtained the TSE COVID-19 Safe Service Certificate from the Turkish Standards Institute. In September, following compliance work with the Personal Data Protection Law, it established an Information Security Management System and qualified for the ISO 27001 Information Security Management System Certificate.