Recycling within the Framework of European Green Deal Webinar

“Recycling within the Framework of European Green Deal” webinar, one of the panels of the New Plastic Economy Conference 2021, was opened under the moderation of PAGEV Chairman and member of our Association Mr. Yavuz Eroglu. Mr. Eroğlu stated the necessity of green deal due to the climate crisis which brings a new perspective to the plastics sector and that there are new risks and opportunities due to this situation.

Mr. Hülya Cakir, Director of the Zero Waste Inventory and Education Branch of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, and our Chairman and Jokey Turkey Packaging AŞ. Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr. Hakan Özhuy attended as a panelist;

  1. Don’t consume resources unless necessary, use renewable resources for many times, recycle if not renewed,
  2. Today’s needs in recycling; good collection of wastes, perfection of waste management, renewal of legislation and the necessity of an EFSA-like system, inspection and certification system,
  3. The importance of making recyclable, durable, reusable and model upgradeable designs,
  4. Information on the Technical Support Project for the Evaluation of Turkey’s Circular Economy Potential initiated by the Circular Economic Policy Branch and the topics focused on the 3-year project details;
    • Current Situation Analysis,
    • Action Plan,
    • “Separate Collection at Source”, which counts to the logic of “Reduce Waste, Separate Collect”,
    • Promotional Activities,
    • The importance of the support of the industry throughout the whole process,
  5. As SEPA, which is the representative of the packaging sector, which accounts for 42% of Plastics in Turkey, and the rigid plastic packaging sector, which produces 25- 30% of the packaging sector, our demand for inclusion in the project and important details for our sector;
    • Problems in the supply of recycling raw materials,
    • The need to take a greater share in recycling as the packaging sector,
    • Necessity to introduce standards which are related to water footprint, carbon emissions and energy consumption with regulations.

Our Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Hakan Özhuy, who spoke on behalf of the Association of Rigid Plastic Packaging Manufacturers, which includes leading companies on a global and local scale, explained that our sector produced 1.3 million tons of raw materials per year. His talking focused that ;

  1. Our products are 100 percent recyclable due to the ability to produce mainly from PP, PE, PET
  2. Our sector, which accounts for 30% of the plastic packaging sector, can use 40-50% recycled raw materials in products such as plastic pallets and crates,
  3. That we are struggling to find enough raw materials for more,
  4. As Rigid Plastic Packaging Manufacturers Association (SEPA), we are willing to support and ready to part of the Evaluation of Turkey’s Circular Economy Potential Technical Support Project.
  5. Energy efficiency and carbon footprint measurement should be demanded,
  6. In terms of sustainability, the dissemination of recycled raw materials within the framework of energy and water efficiency principles is as important as energy and water efficiency in production,
  7. We invite the brand owners to work with SEPA member companies that produce with efficient energy and account the carbon/water footprint during production,
  8. As Rigid Plastic Packaging Industrialists, we are technically good at this issue. We are enthusiastic about public cooperation, perfecting the application and further inclusion of stakeholders in the project. We believe that the importance of telling our companies about this issue better and encourage our packaging user stakeholders to buy products made from recycled raw materials.

Best regards