Mr. Muhammet Saraç, General Manager of İZAYDAŞ, answered our questions about activities and projects of İZAYDAŞ.
Could you please tell of our readers about yourself, your education and professional background in the market?
I was born in Şavşat/Artvin, on 12 January 1966. I completed my primary education at Ziya Gökalp Primary School, in İzmit. And I studied at İzmit İmam-Hatip (Religious Vocational) High School, before my undergraduate studies at Engineering Faculty of Yıldız Technical University, which I graduated in 1988 as an electrical engineer.
In 1990, I started to work at Goodyear Tire Factory in Adapazarı as an electrical project engineer. I furthered my career at the same company for about 16 years as an energy coordinator, energy center supervisor and engineering development specialist, respectively.
Between 2005 and 2009, I worked as the deputy director general of İZGAZ and supervised administrative and financial affairs of the company. In 2008, I actively became involved in the legal privatization process of İZGAZ.
Throughout my career, I have participated in a wide range of courses, seminars, trainings, education programs and conferences both in my country and abroad which were performed either in English or Turkish and received certificates and licenses.
Meanwhile, I completed an associate degree in Economy and then a Business Administration Master’s degree at the Institute of Social Sciences in Sakarya University. I am değerlencurrently a PhD candidate at Kocaeli University.
As of 05 May 2009, I am a member of İZAYDAŞ family as its Chief Executive. Also, I have a good command of English and Arabic. I am a father of two girls, three children in total.
Could you tell us İZAYDAŞ’s main activities and facilities, as the first waste disposal facility of Turkey?
Besides the opportunities offered to human life by the advancing technology, the size of technology-related environmental pollution is rapidly increasing every other day.
Accordingly, an increase in the technologybased industrialization is inevitable considering the needs of rising human population. However, this increase in industrialization results in a fast exhaustion of natural resources and existence of a number of wastes in the environment.
Our company was founded by the Metropolitan Municipality in 1996. The purpose of this foundation was to perform disposal of domestic and industrial wastes in accordance with the Environment Law.
Within this framework, İZAYDAŞ started to perform carry out waste disposal activities as Turkey’s first waste disposal facility, at the same time generating electric power and turning wastes into values.
As an affiliate of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, İZAYDAŞ fulfills all necessary obligations and requirements without any concession. We are also certified in terms of compliance with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ISO 10002, ISO 17025, ISO 17043, ISO 50001 and ISO 27001 standards.
Facilities within the body of our company include;
Clinical and Hazardous Waste Incineration and Energy
Generation Facility,
Sanitary Landfills,
Waste Transport Services,
LFG, Electric power generation facility using methane gas,
Waste Interim Storage Facility,
İZAYDAŞ Laboratory,
Waste Receiver Vessels,
Water Surface Sweepers and Maritime Patrol Aircraft,
Clinical Waste Sterilization Facility,
Garbage Seepage Water Treatment and Recycling Facility,
Integrated Biogas Power Generation Facility,
Yuvacık Dam channel type Hydroelectric Power Plant (HES) project.
Could you give information about İZAYDAŞ’s mission and vision?
Our vision is to be a self-improving, environment and industry friendly, costumer-oriented company and to be a leader for the other waste utilization companies within the industry by uniting our experience and technology.
On the other hand, our mission is to produce effective practices and solutions in waste utilization and disposal for a sustainable environment and a healthy society and contribute to the environmental awareness.
Could you give information about your new objectives and projects?
We have a lot of continuing projects. The first one is the Domestic Waste Incineration and Power Generation Project. Within the scope of this project, a facility having two gross tons of capacity is planned under the guidance of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality.
For now, we store domestic wastes of Kocaeli in our current facilities where we also perform the disposal activities. Physically, we have a limited space and it will eventually not suffice for further storage. Currently, our capacity can only suffice for the next 3-4 years.
We have to prepare for the next step. Again, with the guidance of the Metropolitan Municipality, we are working on a facility project that will be used for domestic and industrial waste incineration and power generation.
industrial waste incineration and power generation. This investment will provide us 2 tons of storage capacity with around 40-45 MW installed power and it is expected to produce about 300 million kWh energy every year.
The other continuing projects include building of Vessel Waste Receiving Facility, preparation for the Maritime Emergency Action Competence Certificate, performance of waste handling RDF/Pre-Treatment activities, ERP (Phase 11), completion of the Software Infrastructure Integration, recycling activities, creation of a LFG greenhouse facility, greening of used landfills, preparation for ISO 14064 Greenhouse Gas Management System Certificate and installation of the CRM system.
Could you tell us about your laboratory and R&D operations?
İZAYDAŞ Laboratory is a competence test provider and the only laboratory in its field in Turkey accredited with ISO 17043 certificate. We provide competence testing services for laboratories in a number of fields, particularly for the environmental laboratories.
Thanks to the steps we have taken in competence testing and production of reference materials, these services will no more be imported but performed in Turkey. Before İZAYDAŞ’s activities, laboratories used to outsource their testing needs. But recently they gradually tend to get these services from our company.
We created a vision that is for the future of laboratories. Currently we can examine around 300 parameters in our facilities. We have the necessary ministerial competence certificates and TÜRKAK’s accreditation about these parameters.
Besides procedure analyses in our laboratories, we continuously broaden scale-up our services for the relevant market.
As for R&D projects; I’d like to express that we work in cooperation with a number of universities and institutions, primarily with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and Kocaeli University.
On the other hand, we have improved current processes in our facility and created alternative standby systems. Accordingly, we have created and a pulverized carbon injection system. We performed a trial about flying ashes and it was successful. And now we are working on patenting.
Anything you want to add…
As İZAYDAŞ Laboratory, we will be ready in ChemLab Eurasia, which is a fair within the scope of TURKCHEM 2018 International Chemistry Industry Group Exhibition to be held in 8-10 November in Istanbul Expo Center.
We are looking forward to creating a fruitful event for TURKCHEM 2018’s new participants and visitors. I would like to wish success for those who contributed to this organization where the sectoral advances will be introduced and discussed.
