Übersicht

The global trend of urbanization goes hand in hand with the responsibility to adequately handle growing quantities of waste. In Turkey additional challenges emerged the last years with the establishment of 16 new metropolitan municipalities and nearly 3 million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkish cities. Municipalities therefore are facing new challenges to provide their citizens with adequate Solid Waste Management Services.

In response to this, Connective Cities and UCLG-MEWA organized the workshop "From Waste to Resource – Integrated Solid Waste Management Solutions“, from 04th to 06th of July in Kocaeli/Turkey. The event was hosted by the Metropolitan Municipality of Kocaeli and the municipal waste management company IZAYDAS in Izmit. The urban practitioners' workshop aimed to support urban waste management practitioners from German and Turkish municipalities by exchange on good practices, and advise each other to create local action plans that improve solid waste management in an integrative manner.

The dialogue event was held in the framework of the “Municipal know-how for host communities in the Middle East” programme and provided a first space for Turkish and German municipalities to exchange their practices. It facilitated a good understanding of legal, financial and technical conditions of German and Turkish, but also of large versus small municipalities, to establish a basis for further cooperation.

Keynotes

Official opening of the learning exchange
Mr. Zekeriya Özak, Deputy Mayor of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality

Introduction of the hosting company İZAYDAŞ
Mr. Muhammet Saraç, General Director of İZAYDAŞ A.Ş.

Message of support
Mr. Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA General Secretary

Objectives of the exchange and presentation of Connective Cities
Ms. Eva Prediger, Connective Cities, GIZ
Connective Cities and Objectives for the Workshop

Municipal Keynote from Kocaeli
Mr. Hüseyin Kılıç, Head of Waste Management, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality
Solid Waste Management in Kocaeli

Keynote to illustrate the current conditions in Turkey
Mr. Osman Şenaydin, Union of Municipalities of Turkey 
Solid Waste Management in Turkey

Ergebnisse

The participating cities presented good practices of their municipalities in the topics of: Institutional Settings and Financing, Collection and Transfer, Recycling and Reuse as well as Sustainable Disposal. The participants also defined current challenges of Solid Waste Management in Turkey, which were elaborated in peer-to-peer advice sessions and led to draft project plans with concrete activities to take back to their municipalities or foster new cooperation among Turkish cities. In the framework of the action planning session specific project ideas emerged that are aiming to find common stands on the use of incineration plants in Turkey, to improve the waste analysis in different regions as basis for better decision making on waste processes and technologies to be implemented in the future, a project to develop strategies for sustainable staff trainings on incineration plants & waste as well as an improvement in the treatment of leachate water. For each project idea the municipalities identified also specific partners to support them further in the implementation process.