Sustainability

Sustainable Vasileia / Karşıyaka Project

Our main objective is to contribute to the socio-economic development of Vasileia / Karşıyaka by achieving zero waste and carbon neutrality by the year of 2030.

Specific objectives:

Increased lobbying and advocacy capacity of our association to persuade the local community to modify their garbage collection practices and policy to accommodate a recycling program for Vasileia / Karşıyaka.
Reduction of the Vasileia / Karşıyaka village solid waste by 50% within two years while reducing ‘municipal’ costs and generating income from recycling practices.
Integrating an environmental education program with a focus on climate change and recycling, at the village school.

Our action will involve the following:

Advocacy and lobbying training for members of our association.
Upgrading of our association office to function as a project management office, and as a repair cafe.
Informing and training villagers on the concept of climate change, recycling, sustainability.
Integrating the concepts of recycling and climate change and biodiversity within the curriculum of Vasileia / Karşıyaka village school.
Calculating the carbon footprint of the homes of students and estimate the carbon footprint of the whole village.
Reduce the total waste of Vasileia / Karşıyaka village by approximately 50% through composting organic wastes, reusing glass as construction sand, and selling metal, plastics and cardboard waste to recycling companies.

Activities at the Primary School

As part of our action, there will be a series of activities at the primary school for two semesters to give information on environment in general, and specificly on recycling. The activities will be held once a week at every class (in each one of 8 classes) for 3 months (during 2022 fall semester) and once in two weeks in the spring semester of 2023.

Activity Topics for Fall 2022:

Recycling in theory and practical training.
Climate change in theory and practical training (mathematical calculation of carbon footprint)
Biodiversity

In the Spring semester of 2023, we will be monitoring the recycling activities of the children. The activities will be held under the supervision of and in cooperation with the class teachers.
General Outline of Our Action

Start Date: November 2021

• First step of the action was to furnish our recently renovated office with office furniture such as desks, chairs, laptop, printer and projector and so on such that we can effectively manage our actions. In addition to the office, establishing a “Repair Shop” is also on our agenda. A Repair Shop is where second hand household items are brought in for a second chance to live on, instead of going to a landfill. The repair shop is a workshop with tools and equipment needed for fixing furniture, household electronics, toys, books, bicycles and clothing.
• Second step of the action is to establish two recycling centers in the village where people can drop off their recyclables (glass, metal, cardboard and plastics). One of them is near the village school and the other is by the Atatürk Park on the mainroad (next to Park Restaurant). These two locations are where the recycling company comes (which has agreed to do so) and collects the materials.
• Besides establishing recycling centers, another component of our action is to raise awareness and promote recycling in the village. We plan to administer 12 group meetings, individual visits, demonstrations and visibility activities to disseminate the information so that at least one individual in every house in the village is directly contacted and informed about the recycling, carbon footprint, and climate change.
• In addition to our efforts in reducing the wastes by reducing, reusing and recycling, we plan to campaign to persuade the local body to revise their legal text on waste management such that it encourages the residents to participate in our goal of reducing garbage by 50% in the next two years. In order to be able to run an effective campaign, we included in our action to get training to increase our associations capacity for advocacy and lobbying.
• We also plan for organizing an environmental education program at the village school which will last for two semesters. The children will learn about recycling, climate change, carbon footprint, and biodiversity. As part of the education program, there will also be a zero-waste challenge for the school.