The impact of the European Landfill Directive on waste management strategy and current legislation in Turkey's Specially Protected Areas

Abstract

The European Landfill Directive (ELD) 99/31/EC has become the most influential piece of waste management legislation to have been produced for some time and calls for reduction of the amount of biodegradable municipal solid waste disposed of to landfill. Moreover, national solid waste strategies need to be changed to achieve increased waste recycling and recovery rates will have to be modified ultimately to meet the targets set in the ELD. This paper outlines the waste management strategy implemented in the Specially Protected Areas (SPAs) in Turkey and gives the key requirements of ELD. On the other hand, it also outlines the adaptation of the Turkish Solid Waste Legislation (TSWL) to ELD and gives comments on the improvement of the TSWL. This study showed that although the TSWL shares the broad objectives of the ELD and includes corresponding requirements of landfill of waste, it is less detailed; there are fewer specific targets and many of the requirements of the ELD are missing in the TSWL. There is no specific target set for the reduction in biodegradable municipal waste going to landfills. On the other hand deposit schemes and recovery rates are being applied on packaging waste without including strategy with long term targets. TSWL states that 45% of the total amount (by weight) of packaging waste produced should be recovered in 1995. However, Control of Packaging and Packaging Waste Legislation specifies the recovery rates between 2005 and 2014 and prohibits the packaging waste made of paper and carton to be landfilled. The Authority for the Protection of Special Areas (APSA) is responsible for the implementation of solid waste management strategies produced by Ministry of Environment and Forest. Implementation of the landfill directive must remain a long-term goal, to be achieved through a succession of incremental steps, in line with economic and institutional development. The improvement in waste management standards can therefore only progress by small incremental steps made in pace with economic development. A quick step change towards the EU standards cannot be achieved. In the short term, the policy should allow to keep a small number of larger landfill sites in operation, and use the resources available to upgrade them with leachate management and other environmental protection systems. As per the realities of Turkey's economy, the construction of new landfill sites, composting or incineration plants should be planned in the long term.