Electronic waste

The European Commission and the Turkish trade and environment ministries have discussed the EU's Waste Shipment Regulation draft in Brussels, with Ankara demanding the end of waste shipment from Europe to Türkiye.

The Turkish delegation emphasized that the prevention of illegal waste shipment and its damage to the environment is a "shared goal."

Shortly before the end of 2022, notices were published for the construction of two important waste management infrastructures. These are the Waste Treatment Units (WTUs) of the Eastern Sector of Western Macedonia and Larissa, with a budget of 241.9 million euros and 54.6 million euros.

Some 53 tons of waste have been collected in nine months within the scope of a project initiated to carry out awareness training on marine cleaning in the Marmara Sea.

According to the report, between September 2021 and June 2022, 52.5 tons of waste, equivalent to the daily waste generated by approximately 46,000 people, were collected and recycled.

The annual amount of plastic waste produced in Turkey in 2021 is nearly 5.6 million tons, according to an academic publication, which underlines Turkey as the ninth country that produces the most plastic waste in the world.

The World Health Organization says overuse of gloves, "moon suits" and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus have spurred a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.

New production and business models that emphasize innovation and sustainability were discussed at the "Circular Economy: Don't Waste the Future" session on the second day of the Uludağ Economy Summit.

Some 280 Olympic pool volume of wastewater is being discharged from Ergene River in Turkey's northwest to the Marmara Sea every day, according to Greenpeace Mediterranean.

"Industrial wastes had made the Ergene River one of the most polluted streams in the world. Now, these wastes are carried to the depths of the Marmara Sea by pipes," the NGO said in a statement.

Bulgaria is at the bottom of the statistics on reused waste in the European Union. With an indicator of 2.9%, it is quite far from the EU average of 49.4%. Even Romania is ahead of us, albeit by a minimum of 3.5%, BGNES reported.

Bitcoin mining produces electronic waste (e-waste) annually comparable to the small IT equipment waste of a place like the Netherlands, research shows.

Miners of the cryptocurrency each year produce 30,700 tonnes of e-waste, Alex de Vries and Christian Stoll estimate.

That averages 9.5oz (272g) per transaction, they say. By comparison, an iPhone 13 weighs 6oz.

Ljubljana – Slovenia generated less waste in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the Statistics Office. Less waste was generated in economic activities, while municipal waste from households and the healthcare sector increased, especially waste that requires special collection and disposal treatment to prevent infection, due to Covid-19.