Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Club and Sustainability Office continue to develop projects to reduce the amount of waste produced by our campus community and its environmental footprint.
Students from the Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Club (IMUSUS) and our Sustainability Office team visited the social areas at the Göztepe North Campus on December 26, 2025, to provide information about the threat plastic bottles pose to the environment and water resources. While social responsibility projects related to plastic caps are being produced in many parts of Turkey, the team pointed out that almost no projects have been developed regarding the bottles these caps belong to. The team explained that these plastic bottles not only produce waste but also, due to their lightness and tendency to fly away in the wind, end up in water sources, leading to many negative consequences such as marine pollution and threatening the lives of marine life. Emphasizing that, in addition to reducing the amount of single-use plastic, recycling plastics is also of great importance, the Sustainable IMU team gifted snowflake decorations produced by recycling PET bottles in the community’s plastic recycling workshops to 50 members of the campus community who were informed.
As an outcome of the “Plastic Recycling Workshop” one of the community’s social responsibility projects, 10 five-liter PET bottles were recycled by the club members during the event. These bottles were first cut into strips at the workshop established in collaboration with Tylman Design and then converted into filaments using the PETMachine. Then, using these filaments, snowflake decorations were produced using 3D printing technology. A total of 700 grams of PET bottles were recycled into snowflake decorations for the event and gifted to our campus members. Thus, it contributed to the circular economy by converting waste, reduced the amount of solid waste on campus, supported corporate zero-waste policies, and reduced the corporate carbon footprint.
The Sustainability Club stated that, they will continue their recycling efforts with different materials and that those interested in learning about new activities can follow the @surdurulebilir_imu Instagram account.
