by Zeynep Cermen

ISTANBUL, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Every day, some 80 garbage trucks relentlessly deliver around 500 tons of household waste to a recycling plant in Turkey's largest city Istanbul.

The recycling and composting plant receives the waste and produces 70 to 75 tons of organically rich compost and 15 tons of valuable materials such as plastic, paper, metal, and glass per day.

It takes about two months to transform the waste into highly organic compost which will be used in parks, gardens, and greenhouses across the city.

Around 18,000 tons of domestic waste is produced each day in Istanbul, the country's most populous city with a population of over 16 million.

"That means about 1.1 kg of waste production per person," Aslan Degirmenci, head of the Istanbul Environment Management Industry And Trade Company (ISTAC), a leading municipal institution, told Xinhua.

Degirmenci's teams have been exerting immense efforts to cope with the growing waste problem while at the same time raising awareness and urging citizens to consider their trash as an asset for the economy and nature.

"We call on Istanbul residents and all state and private institutions to do waste sorting with this awareness and deliver them to authorized institutions," Degirmenci continued.

"This will be one of the most significant steps to solve the waste problem of Istanbul."

In his view, such awareness will also prevent Turkey from being a waste importing country.

However, the path towards maximum recycling is not an easy process as it requires high level of social consciousness.

For the efficient use of resources, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, and glass materials must be collected separately, the Sisli district municipality announces regularly.

The municipality asks the residents to throw their rubbish into separate waste containers, placed in several locations in each neighborhood, such as government offices, schools, hospitals, institutions, and municipal service buildings.

"You can throw your glass waste into the glass waste containers that we place at 199 points," it wrote on its website.

Sevgi Altan, a Sisli resident, said that many are "too lazy to go to these points" and some do not sort their waste at all. "It will take time to establish this awareness in our society," Altan told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, at the recycling and compost plant, Ibrahim Turkeri, chief of the plant, was quite content with the final output.

"This compost increases the water-holding ability of the soil and ensures that plants receive necessary nutritients," Turkeri told Xinhua.

"Even if you mix a little bit into the soil of your home plants, you will see the difference."

Besides household waste, ISTAC recycles several other types of trash at its facility on the European side of the city.

A waste-derived fuel plant receives 110 tons of non-recyclable paper, plastic, wood, and textile scrap products per day and produces fuel for cement factories.

Additionally, a domestic waste incineration facility is still under construction, according to Degirmenci. "We will dispose 3,000 tons of domestic waste per day and generate electrical energy when it becomes operational in the upcoming months." Enditem

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