Zero Waste Garden Encourages Recycling

Zero Waste Garden Encourages Recycling In Kızılcahamam district of Ankara, selected as a pilot district in Turkey's Zero Waste Project, the Zero Waste Garden consisting of 5 sections both encourages recycling and grants points that enable shopping at local businesses. Citizens visiting the Zero Waste Garden to process their waste bring paper, plastic, glass, metal, electronic, textile, waste vegetable oil, batteries and accumulators to the storage units here, where they are weighed according to waste type on a precision scale and points are loaded onto their SAT cards. So far in Kızılcahamam, 1,309 people have registered for the SAT card application, while citizens disposing of their waste have accumulated 151,911 points to date. Within the garden that encourages recycling, the Recycling Workshop allows teachers and students to design and create products from recyclable waste, while the Zero Waste Playground features wooden games where both children and adults can spend time.

Environmental engineer İsa Değer, responsible for the facility, noted that citizens deposit not only paper, plastic, glass and metal waste but also textile, waste vegetable oil, batteries and accumulators in the storage units at the facility, and stated the following regarding the matter:

"The facility consists of 5 sections: the Waste Reception Section, Zero Waste Workshop, Zero Waste Playground, Exchange Shop and cafeteria. In the area where we are currently located, we load points according to the types and quantities of waste brought by citizens. This allows them to make purchases at local markets." Ulvi Pehlivan, who stated that she makes kitchen purchases with the points earned from the waste she brought, explained: "I am most pleased that children come here. They are also learning about commerce. In this way they are learning to give and be given to." Arif Taşkın, who said he brings waste accumulated at his workplace in the district to the storage units at the Zero Waste Garden, stated: "I bring the plastic products I have accumulated and drop them into the recycling machine to earn points. I meet my necessary shopping with these points and today I collected over one hundred points."