Turkey pushes zero-waste plan at COP31

World leaders in Antalya, Turkey, are being asked to sign on to a zero-waste initiative that could change how nations handle trash and reduce heat-trapping gases. The move aims to cut methane emissions and integrate waste management directly into national climate strategies.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited specific figures to support the proposal. He stated that Turkey’s recycling rate climbed from roughly 13% in 2017 to about 40% by the end of 2025. According to Erdogan, this shift has allowed the country to reintroduce 90 million tons of waste into its economy. He told the summit that Turkey will continue working toward a zero-waste goal.

The initiative is led in part by Emine Erdogan, the Turkish first lady, who has championed the effort. The plan focuses on three main areas: reducing methane, cutting food waste, and promoting a circular economy where materials are reused rather than discarded. Samed Agirbas, president of the Zero Waste Foundation, explained that recovered materials can become cheaper when supply chains are efficient and local demand is high.

Critics point to a gap between Turkey’s rhetoric and its current standing on global agreements. Although the country is urging others to cut methane, it has not signed the Global Methane Pledge. That 2021 agreement, launched in Glasgow, targets a 30% reduction in methane emissions from 2020 levels by 2030. Data from Climate TRACE, a nonprofit emissions tracker, ranks Turkey as the fifth-largest emitter of methane from solid waste globally.

Berk Butan, who heads the waste campaign for Greenpeace Turkey, acknowledged the value of the target. He said the zero-waste goal needs support from concrete measures but also requires recognition of its limitations. Past hosts of United Nations climate talks have faced criticism for failing to follow through on their promises, creating a backdrop of scrutiny for this year’s conference.

Methane is the second-largest driver of climate change after carbon dioxide. The United Nations recently adjusted its long-term temperature goals because the world is warming faster than previous thresholds predicted. Reducing methane could slow this warming process. Leaders at COP31 have repeatedly called for urgent action on this front during the opening days of the conference.

The circular economy model prioritizes recycling to reduce emissions. Ke Wang, an energy expert at the WRI’s Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition, called it a vital strategy for cutting greenhouse gases. However, practical hurdles exist. Food waste decomposes quickly, which makes separation and processing expensive. Collecting wet waste requires specialized logistics that many countries lack.

Adalberto Maluf, a senior official in Brazil’s environment ministry, noted that waste and food loss account for nearly 10% of total emissions. He emphasized the need to integrate these actions into broader climate efforts. The International Energy Agency estimates that scaling up recycling could lower the need for new mining by 25% to 40% by 2050. This is critical as the world relies more on renewable technologies like solar panels and batteries that require critical minerals.

Most countries currently prefer mining over recycling because it is often cheaper. The infrastructure needed to recycle critical materials is concentrated in a few nations, including China. The European Union and the United States are projected to have the capacity to recycle only 30% of their raw materials by 2040, according to the IEA. Aimee Boulanger, executive director of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, stressed the need for better incentives to retrieve and reuse materials in a circular way.