Reducing your waste helps fight climate change!
“While there are many ways to fight climate change, zero waste is a bridge that connects them all,” she said. “In fact, it is the most transformative force in the climate struggle.” Emine Erdogan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A lot is going on in the county of Turkey. They are hosting COP31(see below)
What is amazing to me the wife of Turkey’s President Erdogan has a zero waste foundation, ZERO WASTE FOUNDATION | Zero Waste Project https://sifiratikvakfi.org/en
Turkey wants to host a COP31 conference with minimal trash, but a New York Times investigation finds Turkey needs to work harder on their own trash problems. I give Turkey credit for trying to reduce trash, and wish them success in the future.
Turkey is the top importer of plastic waste from Europe. The plastic is supposed to get recycled, but The Times found that much of it ends up in the ocean. Our reporters visited Adana, a recycling capital, and followed the pollution through canals (in one, the level of microplastics rose more than 130-fold) and out to the sea, where it travels for hundreds of miles. These pictures capture the broken waste economy.
How Europe’s Trash Ends Up on Turkey’s Beaches – The New York Times
What is COP31?
COP31 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Antalya, Türkiye from 9 to 20 November 2026.
UN Climate Change Conferences (or COPs) take place every year, and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change that brings together almost every country on Earth.
To put it simply, the COP is where the world comes together to agree on the actions to address the climate crisis, such as limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
COP31 will bring together world leaders and negotiators from the member states (or Parties) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to further global progress, with business leaders, young people, climate scientists, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society sharing insights and best practices to strengthen global, collective and inclusive climate action.
