Recycling rubbish in the TRNC
Şah Marketplace, Çatalköy
show the way
By Chris Elliott……
When we visit social media pages we often read comments both by holidaymakers and expats about the rubbish that is cast aside in the streets and open spaces in the TRNC and I have to agree that it has been a problem but is nothing being done? Far from it.
This week when I visited Girne I parked in the Baldöken car park and when I walked through the old Ottoman cemetery as I came out into the street, near to the public toilets, I noticed a large mesh cage that had been placed there by the Girne Municipality which was full of plastic bottles and tin cans.
To get some more information Margaret and I called into the Municipality offices and was told that this was the only collecting point at the moment for tin cans which was of course in an area frequently visited by both holidaymakers and local residents. We said that it was a great idea and that if the idea was developed further with the placement of similar collection cages in supermarket car parks it would encourage more people to dispose of rubbish correctly.
Now let’s face it, wherever we travel around in the TRNC we see or often forget that rubbish bins are placed in the streets and outside shops and it’s a question of educating people to dispose of rubbish with consideration of others.
How many times have I seen car parks in the United Kingdom adjacent to drive in take away restaurants where I have seen cartons in empty car spaces where customers have purchased a meal, eaten it, thrown their rubbish out of the vehicle window and driven away. Now we think of ourselves of being good community minded people???
Margaret and I had been talking and we recalled seeing another fine example of recycling and we 
visited the Şah Marketplace in Çatalköy where we had the opportunity to speak with one of the owners, Fehime Şah who was delighted to speak with us about their policy of recycling and show us the many types of collection bins where customers can deposit material for recycling.
Fehime Şah said it is through education that we can encourage people in the community to care for the environment and if we start by educating children they in turn will educate their parents and then we will see a big improvement in caring for and safeguarding our environment in the future.
Well said Fehime Şah and if more people and organisations like you lead the way in keeping our island clean then the complaints of the past will remain just that, history!
So am I playing my part in this new initative? Yes, I have been collecting plastic bottle tops for some time and I am now also collecting plastic bottles for recycling. Perhaps one day we can collect glass bottles for recycling as well.
For the past three or four months, there has been a collection cage looking similar to the one in your photograph, at the entrance to the British University of Nicosia, adjacent to Ozankoy football stadium. Considering that it is not easily visible from the road, it is remarkable that it was half full of cans within a few weeks of being placed there. In fact, although the cage is for public use, you have to take your cans through the main entrance of the campus to get to it. This suggests that, if facilities are made available, people will make an effort to use them.
The plastic bottle tops that you have referred to could have a negative effect on fledgling recyclers, however. Apparently, the containers for collecting the tops were very successful and the money raised was used to purchase wheelchairs. We used the collecting point outside Supreme Supermarket at Catalkoy but there were others – until the end of May, when they were removed and the scheme, as I understand it, was discontinued, leaving willing contributors with bags of unwanted bottle tops. We will hold onto our bags, just in case the scheme is resurrected but local people, on their first foray into recycling may wonder, “Why bother?”
Thank you for your comment Ray and perhaps we should take heart from the song which goes something like this:
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best…
And…
…always look on the bright side of life…
By the way if you leave the caps on new waste bottles they can be recycled. Good News don’t you think?
Hey Ray if you check with Citizens Advice Cyprus in Karakum you may find that are still accepting plastic bottle tops so there may still be an outlet for donating them. Failing that just put your bag of tops in the plastic bottle collection container.
I hope you found one in the meantime, Ray; Turk Bank branches almost all have a collection cube, and are very polite to donors, even if they are not customers!
Where does the recycling go to?
Hello Irene Scott,
WikipedIa says :
Recycling is a process to change waste materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to plastic production.[1][2] Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” waste hierarchy.
Watch this space more more news on the subject from cyprusscene.com
Good to see collection points have been set up in Girne and elsewhere. During our stay in April to June this year, we collected all plastic bottles for recycling after seeing a cage somewhere in Lefkosa but unfortunately could not find it again. We asked the local restaurants that sell water in plastic bottles as to where they send the empty ones. They said the supplier took them back. In the end as we could not locate such cages, we had to use the rubbish bins – such a waste! Maybe local papers could publicise the locations of these cages. We would certainly use them the next time we visit North Cyprus.
Thank you Bibhas Neogi for your comment and thoughts. On publishing this article we have shared the article link into many FB pages including local restaurants and with other notable people or organisations.
In so doing we hope this will capture people’s imagination and that this may lead to more co-operation to increase the recycling of waste materials.
Thanks for your reply. I just meant once collected where are the items for recycling going. Have we plants on the island that are processing this waste into reusable items etc? Or does it get shipped to Turkey?
No problem Irene we are following this up and hope to write more very soon
By the way did you see our other articles published today which you may wish to share with your friends.
Northern Cyprus – Recycling or ignoring waste
http://cyprusscene.com/2015/07/06/northern-cyprus-recycling-or-ignoring-waste/
Northern Cyprus – Poison alert yet again!
http://cyprusscene.com/2015/07/06/northern-cyprus-poison-alert-yet-again/
Look forward to the next instalment
Thank you Irene, the follow up can be read on the following link and we are planning further articles soon.
http://cyprusscene.com/2015/07/14/sah-marketplace-in-catalkoy-passionate-about-recycling/
I totally agree with all you say about this problem, and applaud any action to help BUT information which is misleading is not going to help. The first picture in this article is of a “Teneke Cocuk” Can House : a can-collecting cage for recycling of ALUMINIUM only. This is being misused. I cannot explain the Municipaliy office giving you incorrect Information either.
Thank you again Sue Turner do read the reply below and thank you for your sharp eyes which we also have and do check what we are posting.
Thank you for your comment Sue, we visited the municipality when writing this article and pointed out to them that both cans and plastic bottles were being put in the basket and they said, don’t worry it’s not a problem.
Lets hope they take their recycle donation to Sah Marketplace where as we know it will then be processed correctly and not just dumped somewhere.
Thank you Commentator. I note that your Version of the article dated 14th July no longer has this misleading Information. But it is unfortunate that you have today linked to this 3.7 Version in North Cyprus Forum. Could you correct that, please?
Contact the Teneke Cocuk (Can Kid) charity for further Information on the can collection launched in November in the Cyprus Green Action Group.
Great information and thank you Susan,
My name is not Jim but I have fixed it in the original article. Thank you also for visiting North Cyprus Forum which we are trying to help grow again as it was such a nice Forum.
Excuse the pun but can you please give more contact details for Teneke Cocuk (Can Kid) which does not seem to show up in Facebook.
Thank you Susan for the follow up information and as they say, we are on the case.
Do keep us updated with any other news you would like to share with the community.