Turkey has updated the regulatory regime for packaging and waste, including significant new rules regarding waste collection and recycling. Most notably, free plastic bags will be banned from the beginning of 2019 and packaging used in the Turkish market must be at least partially made from recycled materials.

The Regulation on Packaging Waste Control ("Regulation") was published in Official Gazette number 30283 on 27 December 2017, entering into effect on 1 January 2018.

Significant changes introduced by the Regulation include:

  • From 1 January 2019, sales points (including distant sales) will be prohibited from giving out plastic bags to users or consumers, free of charge.
  • Producers of plastic, paper, board, glass and metal packages which will be supplied to the domestic market must now at least partially use:

    • Packaging waste collected within Turkey, or
    • Recycled packaging waste gathered from such waste.
  • At least 80% of recycling targets must now be met from non-industrial sources.
  • The due date for submitting annual notifications about packaging materials produced, imported, exported, supplied and/or packages of imported goods, has moved from February to March.
  • Municipalities' responsibilities for collecting packaging waste are now outlined more clearly.
  • Residential sites with 100 or more houses must now have storage equipment for packaging wastes which complies with the municipality's collection system.
  • A colour coding system is introduced for bins used to collect packaging waste:

    • Blue for paper.
    • Yellow for plastics.
    • Grey for metals.
  • The Packaging Commission will now hold a meeting once per year.
  • Each municipality's vehicle fleet for collecting domestic waste must now include at least 20% vehicles capable of collecting packaging waste.

Please see this link for full text of the Regulation (only available in Turkish).

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.