Turkish Chemical Industry and Environmentally Friendly Technologies

Abstract

Turkey has been manufacturing chemicals for a long time, being a producer of many basic and intermediate chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics. Among ca. 6000 companies manufacturing various<br />chemicals, 95 are large scale, 208 are medium scale, and the rest are all small size companies. The southern coast of the Marmara Sea is the home of Turkey’s densest population and industrial centers. Most<br />companies in chemical industries, especially private sector companies, are situated in the Marmara Region which, therefore, also generates large amounts of solid and liquid wastes from industrial areas, along with municipal solid waste and sewage as well as air pollution from gas emissions. Large scale industrial companies place a great deal of importance on international standards in production and comply with<br />environmental legislation and regulations. Although Turkey has made great progress over the last fifteen years in creating mechanisms to address its environmental problems, air and water pollution abatement problems still exist due to small scale enterprises generally using old technologies in sub-sectors including highly polluting activities such as textiles/clothing/leather, metal products/machinery/equipment, food/beverages/tobacco, forest products/furniture.