"Inspection of Plastic Recycling Facilities Should Be Increased"

Selçuk Gülsün, Chairman of the Board of the Plastic Manufacturers Association (PAGDER), issued a statement regarding the dumping of imported plastic waste on roadsides, which has recently received negative media attention: "As we have stated before, the expansion of increasing inspections through different mechanisms to a wider area is of great importance to prevent unwanted situations in our country and to ensure that our manufacturers operating properly in the rapidly developing domestic plastic recycling industry are not hindered," he said. Noting that leading manufacturers in the sector also support more intensive inspections of plastic recycling facilities, Selçuk Gülsün stated: "Today, the importance of the circular economy and, accordingly, recycling is increasing rapidly. Our country has caught up with this trend while still in its development stage and has acquired a plastic waste processing capacity that competes with the world. It is projected that the economic size of the plastic recycling sector will achieve an average growth rate of 11.3% annually over the next 30 years and will create a market worth USD 900 billion at 2050 current figures. Our country has industrial establishments working honestly and in compliance with regulations to take the largest possible share by participating in this newly developing industry. In this context, the small number of people who violate the law and dump the residual waste of the plastic recycling process into the environment instead of disposing of it properly disturbs us the most. In this regard, we welcome with great satisfaction the increase in inspections by our public institutions in recent times. We anticipate that once the new control mechanisms we have repeatedly mentioned are implemented, such scenes will not be experienced again," he said.

Inspections Should Be Increased Instead of Bans and Restrictions

Emphasizing that increasing restrictions on waste imports do not reduce environmental problems and also hinder sector growth, Gülsün stated: "Particularly issues such as the retroactive application of regulations reduce predictability to a minimum for the plastic recycling sector. We have witnessed many investors refraining from new investments for this reason in recent times. Obstructing this sector, which our country has caught up with while still in its development stage and which is rapidly increasing its processing capacity, could mean that in future we will be dependent on imports in recycling as we are in the petrochemical industry. Global brands are imposing ambitious targets requiring their suppliers to use recycled raw materials. Furthermore, we can say that this trend will continue to increase in the coming years. Under these conditions, we believe that increasing inspections rather than bans and restrictions would be a more correct approach to prevent the sector from being harmed," he said.

We Are Ready for Cooperation on Effective Inspection Methods

Continuing his remarks, Selçuk Gülsün stated: "We have previously shared our solution proposals with the relevant public authorities for inspections to be carried out more effectively. The issue we particularly emphasized at this point is ensuring that imported plastic scrap is processed by the importer. We believe the most effective inspection to achieve this is cross-checking between companies' waste imports and electricity consumption. Besides this, if pre-licensing infrastructure adequacy analysis, verification of information on disposal facilities to which residual waste is sent, and on-site inspection in high-volume imports are implemented, it will be much easier to identify those committing acts that are considered crimes under our laws and environmental problems will be eliminated. We are ready for cooperation with the relevant public authorities in the implementation and development of these inspection measures," he said.