Turkey commits to conclude Marine Litter Action Plans at the end of 2018 which will be prepared for each province that have a coast on Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea or Sea of Marmara. Action reports under these action plans will include information about the clean-up activities, pollution reduction studies and will be published at the end of each year. The results will be evaluated and minimization of marine litter studies will be executed with the relevant sectors such as plastics, cosmetics, textile etc.
In order to combat marine litter, strong waste management policies as well as reduction, reuse and recycling activities is strongly encouraged by Turkish Government. We aim to reach a recycling rate of 65% for packaging waste and 35% for all recyclable waste by 2023. Starting from 1 January 2019 pricing of plastic bags will be on the agenda.
Turkey will continue its efforts to prevent both land-based and ship-sourced marine litter in line with Marpol 73/78 Convention, Basel Convention, Barcelona Convention and Bucharest Convention.