PAGEV Launches Meaningful Campaign for Conscious Consumption and Recycling Mobilization

PAGEV's campaign emphasizing the role of plastics in our lives and raising public awareness on conscious consumption and recycling will be carried out under the slogan "Plastic has no place in nature, it has a place in our lives." Plastic is present in life-saving ambulances, serums, life-carrying containers, safety belts that protect our children, water hoses and pipes, paints, shoes, and in virtually everything that enables us to live better. PAGEV proceeds from this premise to say that plastics are not our enemy and that we need to recycle them. PAGEV aims to reach consumers through radio, television and information spots with its recycling campaign.

Yavuz Eroğlu;

"As the plastic sector, we do not want this magnificent material that makes our lives easier and adds comfort in many areas of life to be thrown into picnic areas, seas, or nature through unconscious consumption and irresponsible behavior. Plastics are not produced for this purpose. When we look at waste materials, we see that every recyclable product has the value of gold. Waste definitely has no place in nature. We must recycle all products we cannot reuse and return them to the economy. We invite everyone to contribute to making Turkey the world's leading recycling and green technologies nation," he said.

Eroğlu;

continued his remarks as follows: "With a Responsible Industry approach, PAGEV is fulfilling its responsibilities in recycling. Since 2014, in addition to waste collection, we have been providing education on recycling, conducting public awareness activities, and implementing many projects that will contribute to the environment. From PAGEV's establishment to today, we have carried out activities to separate and recycle 1 million 36 thousand tons of packaging waste at the source. Over a six-year period, we recycled many types of waste from plastic to paper, from glass to metal, and while continuing to protect the environment on one hand, we contributed TRY 2 billion 882 million to the economy on the other. Thanks to these activities conducted between 2014-2019, 9 million 149 thousand trees were saved from being cut down. 22 million 100 thousand kWh of electricity was saved, 1 billion 102 million liters of fossil fuel was saved, and 13 million 487 thousand liters of water was conserved. By recycling all these waste materials and not sending them to landfills, 9 million 755 thousand cubic meters of land was saved. Looking at the gains we achieved from these figures, we can say that in 6 years we gained 7 Belgrad Forests for our country. The recycled packaging waste we achieved is equivalent to the packaging waste of 50 million people, which equals the combined population of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Belgium—countries that boast about their recycling in the EU. We will continue our recycling efforts without slowing down in the coming period. In 2020, by serving 15 million people through 95 municipalities, we aim to separate and recycle 300 thousand tons of waste at the source. The number of people we have provided recycling education to so far is 50 thousand, and we plan to take this figure much further," he said.

PAGEV Chairman;

"What we need to do is educate all individuals for conscious consumption and responsible behavior, starting from schools. We need to make recycling a national mobilization. This transformation will begin with each of us individually and in our homes. We will prevent plastics from being thrown into picnic areas, nature, and seas. We will collectively prevent harm to animals we share the world with and whose existence is interconnected with ours—turtles, whales. We will recycle plastics. PAGEV and the plastic sector will be the pioneers in this, as always," he expressed his views.

14th PAGEV Turkish Plastic Industry Congress was organized this year with the main theme "Recycling from the Perspective of Climate Change and Zero Waste"

Throughout the day-long Congress, experts, sector representatives and academics from Turkey and abroad discussed the future of the sector from a recycling perspective. Additionally, a panel titled "Recycling for Zero Waste" was held at the Congress.

Plastic recycling;

• 1 fleece is obtained from 8 recycled plastic bottles.
• By recovering a 5-liter plastic bottle, 6 hours of 60 watt electrical energy can be saved.
• A sleeping bag can be made from 35 used 2.5-liter PET bottles.
• The energy cost of recycling PET bottles and plastic bags is only 10 percent of the original energy cost. The energy required to recycle glass bottles is 66 percent of the original manufacturing energy.
• While plastics are recycled at 120 to 200 degrees, other alternative materials are recycled at 650 to 1400 degrees.