The catalog featuring the winning entries of the 2026 International Zero Waste and Sustainability Competition (SAS2026), which expanded to the international level for the first time this academic year, has been made available online.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Education, the Zero Waste Competition, which had been held nationally for the past two years, gained an international dimension in the 2025-2026 academic year under the name "2026 International Zero Waste and Sustainability Competition” in cooperation with the Zero Waste Foundation, in line with the Century of Türkiye Education Model’s vision of raising environmentally conscious, responsible individuals who embrace a culture of sustainable living.
SAS2026 was open to public and private schools in Türkiye, as well as schools affiliated with education consultancies and education attaches abroad and schools in countries where the Türkiye Maarif Foundation operates.
The competition featured four main categories: "Short Film on Food Waste,” "Upcycling-Useful Model,” "From Waste to Art” and "Living School Gardens.”
Thousands of students from different countries took part in the competition, with the winning entries selected following jury evaluations at both the national and international levels.
The awards ceremony also featured a "Living School Gardens Poster Gallery” and exhibition areas for "Upcycling” and "From Waste to Art,” while the winning short films were screened.
The SAS2026 catalog aims to showcase students’ work on zero waste and sustainability, promote best practices, raise environmental awareness and support sustainable living through education.
‘Unique reflection’
In the catalog’s foreword, National Education Minister Yusuf Tekin highlighted the importance of environmental awareness, sustainability and the zero waste approach in education under the Century of Türkiye Education Model.
Tekin said the model’s understanding of a "competent and virtuous person” focuses on raising individuals who combine knowledge with responsibility, awareness with action and production with a sense of values. He said the works featured in the catalog demonstrate that students are growing into a generation that approaches environmental problems with sensitivity, develops solutions and looks to the future with hope.
"Each idea developed by our students once again demonstrates the formative role education plays in social transformation,” Tekin said.
Emphasizing the importance of bringing the zero waste vision together with students’ productivity, creativity and sense of environmental responsibility, "Turning waste materials into something valuable through our children’s imagination and efforts shows that transformation begins first in the mind,” he said. "Each work is a unique reflection of environmental awareness, aesthetic sensitivity and the will to create.”