In the regard of continuing the workshop on “integrated planning of municipal solid waste management” held in Kocaeli in July, in collaboration with UCLG-MEWA and Connective Cities, which has been organized a technical visit for three days to Cologne, Germany; in particular for Turkish municipalities; Gaziantep, Hatay, Pendik, Seljuk, Karesi, and Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT).
At the beginning of the program, the German municipalities union (DST), presented some general information on waste management systems in Germany, and then they started a field visit to waste recycling and incineration facilities in Cologne for three days. During the visit, a comparison took place between the two waste management systems (in Turkey and Germany), along with alternatives solutions to the existing systems. At the end of the third day, the outcome results have been evaluated by the Turkish municipalities and Connective Cities.
Waste management program for climate protection
After the technical visit in Cologne, the Connective Cities organized a program on waste management for climate protection in Hamburg from 27 to 29 November, which attended by 50 representatives from 8 countries, to highlight the current challenges facing cities in achieving success in waste management by underlining the role of waste management in climate protection. All municipalities were invited to participate in this program to provide examples of their activities, and to share it with the German municipalities and associations within the European waste reduction week events.
Good practices and current challenges presentations
12 presentations on good practices have been selected from the participants including Gaziantep and Kuşadası municipalities. Applications’ typical performance was discussed that highlighted various issues such as recycling, energy production from waste, the reuse of construction waste.
In each debate, participants had the opportunity to get recommendations for alternative solution by comparing the situation in their cities with those presented as good practices. On the last day of the program, all the output results of the working groups became an action plans defining the roadmap for the next stage.