Location: Izmir, Turkey
For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Turkey is holiday. This is no surprise when one takes into account that in 2010, Turkey attracted more than 28.6 million foreign tourists. Interestingly, looking at this country through some more green tinted glasses, what only few people know (frankly, I used to be one of them before I visited the country a couple of weeks ago) is that Turkey is one of the five major ship recycling nations in the world. In fact, there is a big ship breaking yard in the western town of Aliaga in Izmir where 341 ships experienced the end of their lives in 2011.
Another more economical but just as impressive fact is that the Turkish cement export ranks as the fourth biggest in the world with a production capacity of 66 million tons. Turkey trails only China, India and the U.S. in cement exports on a global scale. It may seem a little incoherent and random but the size of the Turkish cement sector may actually turn out to be a massive potential for the recycling industry, more specifically for producers of recycling and waste management equipment. There is a growing shift towards more independency and autonomy of Turkish cement producers from the supply of natural resources, mainly fossil fuels. This means, many producers are seriously thinking about using (more) RDF (refuse derived fuel) generated from waste that can replace a specific percentage of fossil fuels used in the combustion process. This is certainly a shift that is worth watching, which means I’ll probably be heading to Turkey more often.
Overall, besides the many things I have learned about the Turkish environmental or cement sector, there is one thing that I will remember most about my last trip to Turkey: riding a silver elephant. :-)
