Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change has prepared a draft regulation for recycling used cooking oil, which often ends up in soil or sea once disposed of randomly.

The government will regulate the recycling of oil, with the ultimate purpose of its use as an alternative resource, for biofuels, jet fuels and ban their improper disposal in a way that can harm the environment.

The regulation will also set standards for facilities that produce fuels from cooking oil and discarded animal fat, subject only to recycling under new rules. The regulation also prohibits the import of used cooking oil for recycling purposes and brings fines to collectors of used cooking oil who improperly dispose of rather than recycle it. In addition, municipalities will be tasked with preventing improper disposal, while oil producers will be required to supply equipment for the proper collection of used cooking oil from households.

Turkey pursues an ambitious recycling program in the face of climate change depriving the world of valuable resources. "Zero waste" program, spearheaded by first lady Emine Erdoğan and launched in 2017, aims to save any material which can be recycled. Since its inception, the program has given back more than $1.8 billion (TL 30 billion) to the economy that would typically have been wasted. In addition, it saved 265 million trees and prevented the emission of 3 million tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere that would further pollute the air in the country already grappling with the impact of climate change.

The program, coordinated by the ministry, was first implemented in government offices, with several ministries adopting the scheme by sorting out their waste at the source instead of random disposal. In five years, the number of public agencies and private companies adhering to the practice has reached 140,000. Figures by the ministry show the country's recycling rate, which was 13% when the project kicked off in 2017, was 25% in 2021. In a written statement earlier this month, the ministry said its next goal was to bring it to 35% in 2023.

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