Turkey is preparing to welcome environmentalists from across the globe on Friday for the second International Zero Waste Summit in Istanbul. The theme of this year’s summit will be "Start saving tomorrows today" and will be hosted by first lady Emine Erdoğan.

Organized by the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, the summit will include the following panels: "Urban Solutions for Global Problems," "Zero Waste in Cities," Waste Management and Finance in Local Governments" and "Sustainable Waste Management and Resource Efficiency in a Circular Economy." Running for one day, the summit will be held at Istanbul’s Haliç Congress Center.

The zero waste campaign was launched by the first lady after Turkey started to prioritize waste management over concerns about rising environmental damage with municipalities responsible for garbage collection upgrading their waste management systems.

The campaign saw some 14,000 public institutions, from the Presidential Complex to ministries and their branches, integrated into the project, which covers recycling, sorting waste at its source and recycling food waste into compost. The ensuing recycling drive saw zero waste collection areas being set up in shopping malls, businesses, schools, hotels and airports, among other places. The drive saved more than 30 million trees between 2017 and 2018, with the recycling of more than 1.7 million tons of paper waste and cardboard.