Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality is organizing the Zero Waste Festival on Oct. 14-16 to raise awareness about making the world a more livable place for all living things and future generations in today's conditions where the natural balance of the ecosystem is disturbed. Zero Waste Festival, the most comprehensive transformation campaign at the level of local governments in Türkiye, will be held with the theme of "More world with less."
With global warming, changing ecological order, and increasing population, the world is getting increasingly polluted daily. Hence, Türkiye rolled up its sleeves to put a "stop" to this under an initiative called "Zero Waste Project" prepared under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.
Türkiye's zero waste project
The Zero Waste Project, launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change, under the patronage of First Lady Emine Erdoğan, has led Türkiye's fight against climate change. The initiative primarily aims to bring the country in line with sustainable development principles, prevent uncontrolled waste and leave a "cleaner, developed" country to future generations, according to the ministry. It has slowly but steadily gained support from various sectors since 2017. First Lady Emine Erdoğan, who led the creation and spread of zero waste awareness and received the "Climate and Development Leadership Award" given for the first time by the World Bank for her efforts,
Drawing attention to the rapid destruction of natural resources as a result of the rapid consumption cycles created by man, Mayor Büyükakın drew attention to the danger the world is in. "We use our world's resources as if we own 1.7 times the amount. If the world population is to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, as predicted, we will need a world three times larger to sustain our current production and consumption habits. We extract raw materials, transform them into products, and generally dispose of products as non-recyclable waste after use or consumption. What is the result of this? One-third of the food produced each year, that is, 1.3 billion tons of food, is thrown away. At least 25%-30% of the fruit and vegetables produced in Türkiye go to waste before they reach the table. Only unplugged plugs consume 5% of the total electricity in Türkiye. Around 15 million tons of clothes are discarded every year.
Speaking about the purpose of the Zero Waste Festival, Mayor Büyükakın said that our planet is under increasing pressure due to the understanding of unsustainable consumption and that he warns living things of these palpable effects. Büyükakın further said, "Today, environmentally friendly policies are on the agenda of the whole world, but the main power lies in changing our individual consumption habits. Türkiye's first and most comprehensive Zero Waste Festival was built on exactly this understanding. With the main theme of 'Transform Your World,' we aim to mobilize the power of individuals on zero waste and encourage them to participate in this change and mobilization voluntarily in order to ensure this change for the future of our country and our world. As always, we will put forth all our efforts to bring the suggestions and projects put forward at the festival into practice. Because 'a happy country is a country with a strong economy, a peaceful country is a country where its streets can be walked on, a smart country is an accessible country for everyone, from the elderly to the young, and most importantly, a happy country is a clean country with its air, water, soil and sea cleaned. Therefore, I am waiting for all our compatriots from Kocaeli to the Zero Waste Festival, which will be one of the important cornerstones for Kocaeli to become a happy city."
With the slogan of "Daha Azıyla Daha Çok Dünya," which translates to "More World with Less," the Zero Waste Festival of Kocaeli Metropolitan aims to mobilize the power of individuals for the future of the country and the world. To ensure this change and encourage the public to participate voluntarily, the waste approach and circular economy will be discussed from business, public and academic perspectives. Beyond that, everyone from seven to 70 will experience the zero-waste perspective, and there will be workshops in which they will participate, explaining how important a waste-free life is for the future of the country and our world and inviting everyone to be a part of the solution.
The entire festival is built on circular economy principles "reduce, reuse and recycle." For this purpose, the participation ticket for this festival will be made from waste. In other words, Kocaeli people who want to participate in workshops, shows and panels must come to the festival with waste such as textiles, electronics, and plastic.
On Oct. 15, the festival of zero waste events will begin. More than 80 upcycling workshops and nine waste-free product exhibitions will be held in 34 different areas over two days. In addition to these workshops, the festival will host many names and artists working on zero waste. To name a few, Akdoğan, Mehmet Yalçınkaya, Varol Yaşaroğlu-King Şakir.
Sessions will be held with important names on Advertising and Consumption Culture. Within the framework of the Zero Waste Festival, a zero waste communication competition is planned for high school students. At the end of the extra-curricular activity that will start before the festival, the winners will receive their awards on the last day of the festival.