With the coming of the new year, the "zero waste" movement in Turkey has gathered a lot of momentum.

The movement has proved beneficial not just for the environment, but for stray animals living all around Turkey - especially in the winter. Bursa's Yıldırım Municipality now uses recycled materials to build shelters for the district's stray animals.

Mayor İsmail Hakkı Edebali said that being sensitive to creatures living around us is a sign of high culture and civilization. "Stray animals have a hard time finding shelter from the winter cold. This project will help them stay warm in this cold weather," he added.

"We built animal shelters from recycled waste materials, collected by our municipality, and placed them all across the district. The winter is especially difficult for stray animals. These homes will help street animals and reduce the workload on our animal shelters," Mayor Edebali said.

Apart from finding shelter, stray animals also have a hard time finding food in the winter so the municipality distributes cat and dog food every day. People of the district have also come forward to help the animals, feeding them with leftovers.