Extended Producer Responsibility Conference and Green Dot Awards Ceremony

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ÇEVKO Foundation: “We Recommend Reactivating the Extended Producer Responsibility Model”

If Turkey Fails to Integrate Its Own Waste into the Circular Economy, Global Regulatory Changes May Adversely Affect Our Country’s Export, Production and Employment Capacity, as well as Its Attractiveness for International Investment.

The Extended Producer Responsibility Conference organized by the ÇEVKO Foundation was held on 17 December 2024 with the participation of national and international speakers from the public sector, NGOs and the business world. The conference emphasized the importance of returning to Extended Producer Responsibility practices, which have gained significant importance with the transition to a circular economy but have been abandoned in our country since 2020. As part of the conference, the 2024 Green Dot Awards were also presented to their recipients.

The “Extended Producer Responsibility Conference” organized by the ÇEVKO Foundation was successfully held on Tuesday, 17 December 2024 in Istanbul. The conference brought together a wide audience from the public sector, private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia. It focused on Turkey’s transition to a circular economy, waste regulations and Extended Producer Responsibility practices. Critical topics such as the EU Ecodesign Regulation, anti-greenwashing regulations in Turkey and the activities of the GETAM Recovery Testing and Research Center were addressed through presentations by national and international experts.

In his opening speech, ÇEVKO Foundation Chairman of the Board Okyar Yayalar said: “ÇEVKO Foundation was established 33 years ago by companies that adopted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Turkey. During this period, efforts were made to ensure that packaging waste in Turkey is collected separately at the source and recycled. Over these 33 years, we have carried out education and awareness-raising activities to instill recycling awareness in our society. While cooperating with public authorities on the creation of the legal framework, we also worked together with municipalities and licensed collection and separation facilities. In recent years, our agenda has been to combat climate change and, as an NGO, to take a leading role in the transition to a circular economy. We have been working for many years to expand the Extended Producer Responsibility model. However, although EPR has gained great importance in Europe with the transition to a circular economy, we have unfortunately all witnessed that this practice has been abandoned in our country since 2020. I hope this conference will be productive in generating useful recommendations for the future of our country.”

Unilever Senior Corporate Relations Manager Çetin Yılmaz: “The challenge we face is extremely serious: the climate crisis”

Taking the floor among the opening speakers, Unilever Senior Corporate Relations Manager and ÇEVKO Foundation Executive Board Chair Çetin Yılmaz greeted the conference participants on behalf of Unilever, the main sponsor of the event. In his speech, Yılmaz said: “Today, the climate crisis represents the greatest threat facing humanity. Its scale and impacts are so vast that all stakeholders—governments, the business world, NGOs and, of course, consumers—must act together and in cooperation. Here, the primary responsibility lies with the state: it is of vital importance that it regulates and supervises, imposes sanctions and implements incentive mechanisms. Our participation and contribution as producers have been structured through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). For this reason, the EPR model must once again become operational in our country.”

“GCA Glass Packaging General Manager Dr. Abdullah Gayret: Current conditions do not allow sustainable production”

As part of the opening remarks, Dr. Abdullah Gayret, General Manager of GCA Glass Packaging, the event’s gold sponsor, highlighted the following points: “Given today’s conditions, the world’s resources and environmental balances no longer allow sustainable production. Looking only at the precautions producers take in their own production processes is not sufficient to achieve sustainability. It is crucial that all producers minimize waste and reduce all types of emissions throughout the entire life cycle of their products.”

EXPRA Chairman Claude Turping: “Priority should be given to Extended Producer Responsibility practices”

Claude Turping, Chairman of EXPRA – the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, took the floor as the final speaker of the opening session. After speaking about the principles of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and its history, he emphasized the differences between EPR and tax-based systems. Turping concluded his remarks as follows: “In today’s world, where plastic use is becoming increasingly sensitive, we believe that instead of the punitive, prohibitive provisions of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, which place the responsibility and cost of pollution on producers, authorities should tighten their supervision and controls and give priority to EPR practices.”  

Following the opening speeches, the first session titled “Waste Regulations in the Transition to a Circular Economy, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Practices and Sustainable Production” began.

EXPRA Managing Director Joachim Quoden: “Under EU regulations on batteries and accumulators, end-of-life vehicles, packaging, single-use plastics, and waste electrical and electronic equipment, EPR is mandatory”

The first speaker of the session, Joachim Quoden, Managing Director of EXPRA – the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, stated that since EXPRA was founded in 2013 by non-profit recovery organizations, including ÇEVKO, the number of member and partner organizations has reached 38. Providing detailed information on the new EU Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste, introduced under the EU Waste Framework Directive and the Circular Economy Package, Quoden noted that under EU regulations on batteries and accumulators, end-of-life vehicles, packaging, single-use plastics, and waste electrical and electronic equipment, EPR is mandatory. After defining EPR, he referred to the variety of EPR implementations in the countries of EXPRA members and explained the common features of the EPR model, best EPR practices and EXPRA’s “golden rules” for EPR.”

ÇEVKO Foundation Secretary General Mete İmer: “We recommend re-establishing a traceable, verifiable and transparent EPR model”

Taking the floor in the session, ÇEVKO Foundation Secretary General Mete İmer emphasized that how Extended Producer Responsibility is defined is very important. Referring to the OECD definition, he stated that EPR is an environmental policy approach under which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of the product’s life cycle, and that according to this definition, EPR systems are institutional mechanisms created for the prevention and management of waste related to specific products and are based on the “polluter pays” principle. İmer explained in detail that EPR was incorporated into Turkish Environmental Law in 2006 and that EPR provisions still exist in the Waste Management Regulation and the Packaging Waste Control Regulation. He noted that since 2020, with the introduction of the Recycling Contribution Fee (GEKAP) imposed by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance on producers placing products on the market, the EPR model has been abandoned. Describing ÇEVKO Foundation’s EPR work and the voluntary EPR field projects they have carried out with companies over the last four years, İmer said that they have developed a proposal for addressing GEKAP and EPR together: “Our proposal is to re-establish and implement a traceable, verifiable and transparent EPR model and, within this system, to allow producers who document that they have fulfilled their financial obligations to offset the relevant expenditures from GEKAP.” He went on to invite all relevant stakeholders, particularly the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and the Turkish Environment Agency, to cooperate on this matter and added that ÇEVKO Foundation stands ready to provide support.

Unilever Senior Corporate Relations Manager Çetin Yılmaz: “Turkey is among the countries that will be most affected by global regulatory changes”

Highlighting the potential impact of EU regulatory changes on Turkish exports and the economy, Çetin Yılmaz said: “As of 2030, every package placed on or imported into the EU market will be required to contain at least 30 percent recycled material. This requirement will increase the cost of exporting goods to the EU, which is our largest market. In addition, the EU Waste Shipment Regulation, which entered into force in May 2024, has introduced significant restrictions on waste exports from the EU. Yet we are dependent on imports from the EU for recycled inputs. Current legislation and practices in Turkey are not sufficient to protect our country from the impacts of these regulations. The best solution to prevent future difficulties is to ensure that packaging waste in Turkey is separated and collected with minimal loss under appropriate conditions, and to increase our recycling capacity and capability. Actively involving economic operators that place packaging on the market in the process through EPR will serve this solution. In this regard, our recommendation is to re-establish and implement a traceable, verifiable and transparent EPR model and, within this system, to allow producers who document that they have fulfilled their financial obligations to offset the relevant expenditures from GEKAP.”

CONAI – Italian National Packaging Consortium – Head of International Relations Amanda Fuso Nerini: “In the circular economy, the ecodesign of packaging has gained importance”

Amanda Fuso Nerini, Head of International Relations at CONAI – the Italian National Packaging Consortium and first speaker of the second session, underlined the following points: “In the circular economy, the ecodesign of packaging has gained importance. The EU Green Deal and the ongoing revisions to EU legislation contain provisions on ecodesign. In the newly published EU Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste, prevention, reduction and recycling remain the three main objectives. In Italy, EPR is implemented for the management of packaging and packaging waste, and the only authorized organization in this area is CONAI, which brings together all packaging materials under a consortium structure.” She then provided detailed information about CONAI’s work.

Head of the Advertising, Control and Foreign Relations Department, Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Turkey, Erdem Biçer: “Sustainability has become particularly important in recent times”

The second speaker of the session, Erdem Biçer, Head of the Advertising, Control and Foreign Relations Department at the Turkish Ministry of Trade, began his talk by saying: “The issue of sustainability has gained increasing importance in recent times due to changing consumer preferences and has begun to feature prominently in advertising campaigns. In parallel with this development, it has also become important to take measures against greenwashing, which is currently grouped under six main headings.” Providing information about the Ministry of Trade’s 2022 “Guideline on Environmental Claims in Advertisements,” Biçer spoke about the regulations governing advertising and communication activities of brands related to sustainability and the environment. He emphasized the following: “This guideline was built on preventing the exploitation of consumers’ sensitivity and concern about the environment. Our aim is to guide advertisers in this respect while also increasing consumers’ level of knowledge. Essentially, environmental claims included in advertisements must not be vague; they must be verifiable and measurable. Similarly, we believe that the environmental claims of non-publicly traded companies regarding environmental targets should also be verifiable, measurable and transparently shared with the public.” Biçer added that the guideline, which serves as a precedent for the Advertising Board, has been shared with private sector organizations and that feedback is expected from industries.

Turkish Environment Agency, Directorate of Recycling and Producer Responsibility, Environmental Engineer Zeynep Efşan Çeşme: “The activities of the Environment Agency are grouped under six main headings”

Environmental Engineer Zeynep Efşan Çeşme, from the Directorate of Recycling and Producer Responsibility of the Turkish Environment Agency, was another speaker in the second session. She spoke about the work of the Turkish Environment Agency, noting that it was established in 2020 with the aim of preventing environmental pollution; contributing to the protection and improvement of green spaces; increasing resource efficiency in line with the circular economy and zero-waste approach; and carrying out activities related to the establishment, operation, management and supervision of a national deposit management system. Çeşme grouped the activities of the Environment Agency under the following six headings: “Establishing, operating or having a deposit management system operated; implementing necessary administrative regulations and measures, including permit and approval procedures for products subject to the deposit system, and carrying out the necessary inspections; conducting activities to improve the environment; contributing to the establishment and implementation of a zero-waste management system; ensuring that recyclable products are brought back into the national economy after use; bringing recyclable products back into the national economy after use; and raising public awareness and sensitivity.”

 ÇEVKO Foundation Public, International Relations and Projects Manager Alphan Eröztürk: “GETAM Analyses make it possible to support environmental claims with scientific data”

The final speaker of the session, ÇEVKO Foundation Public, International Relations and Projects Manager Alphan Eröztürk, emphasized the importance of approaches free from speculation on scientific issues and the need for environmental claims to be supported by scientific facts. Eröztürk said he considers the Ministry of Trade guideline highly valuable as it provides guidance on how to express actions taken. “If an environmental claim is to be made on packaging, there must absolutely be scientific support behind it. Furthermore, clear criteria are being established—both in terms of global trade chains and regulatory frameworks—regarding the recyclability of packaging and the proportion of recycled material used. The importance of scientific data for accurate claims is growing, both for trade continuity and legal compliance, and for sustainability communication. GETAM, the Recovery Testing Center that we established in cooperation with Yıldız Technical University with the support of the Istanbul Development Agency, provides clear scientific data on these issues. Advanced studies such as biodegradability and compostability analyses can also be carried out at the test center. Within GETAM, we are preparing new analysis processes tailored to the needs of industry. GETAM Analyses offer companies the opportunity to support their environmental claims—which need to be communicated in the context of legal obligations and sustainability communication—with scientific data,” he said.

ÇEVKO Foundation Board Member Dr. İsa Coşkun: “Harmonization with the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation is important for our country’s exports”

In the closing speech of the conference, ÇEVKO Foundation Board Member Dr. İsa Coşkun drew a general framework based on notes from all the speakers’ presentations. Drawing attention to the EU Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste, Coşkun noted that 40 percent of our country’s exports go to EU countries and emphasized that alignment with EU legislation in this regard is important for our national economy. Coşkun said: “We recommend re-establishing and implementing a traceable, verifiable and transparent Extended Producer Responsibility model and, within this system, allowing producers who document that they have fulfilled their financial obligations to offset the relevant expenditures from GEKAP.”

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