Within the scope of the 2024 Plastic-Free July events, IMU Sustainability Club (IMUSUS) organized “Plastic Upcycling Workshops” to draw attention to the recycling and upcycling of plastic as a material. In the first of the workshops organized on Sunday, July 14, 2024, hosted by the IMU Sustainability Office, an artwork was created by upcycling plastic caps under the direction of research assistant Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from the Sustainability Office team. It is aimed to exhibit this work in the exhibition that IMUSUS will prepare to draw attention to the environmental pollution caused by plastic waste and the environmental footprint of people due to plastic use.
In the first part of the two-stage plastic cap upcycling workshop, attention was drawn to the amount of solid waste generated by people’s plastic use. ÇELİKBİLEK, who drew attention to the fact that according to the “Global Plastic Outlook” report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), plastic waste production, which was 156 million tons in 2000, more than doubled to 353 million tons by 2019, stated that only 9% of this waste was recycled. She drew attention to the fact that although sustainable products have started to be included in many areas with the innovations in production processes and the increase in green products, it is difficult to significantly reduce the use of plastic in a short time due to its ease of use, lightness and cost advantage. For this reason, ÇELİKBİLEK stated that consumer behavior changes that will primarily eliminate single-use plastics from daily life should be targeted. She stated that for plastics, the use of which cannot be avoided in this process, importance should be given to recycling and upcycling processes.
ÇELİKBİLEK, who stated that both recycling and upcycling support the circular economy by ensuring the reuse of resources, drew attention to the fact that the recycling process also consumes energy during the processes of collecting resources, transporting them to waste recycling facilities, sorting them, producing new products and transporting them to shops, although at much lower levels than new product production. For this reason, she drew attention to the importance of raising public awareness about upcycling processes that will reduce these consumptions to a much lower level and including upcycling in zero waste processes. She stated that IMUSUS also aims to create significant public awareness on this issue and for this reason, they have prepared the “From Waste to Art” social responsibility project, where they produce works of art from waste materials.
In the second practical part of the workshop; an artwork was started to be created with the pixel art method from plastic caps. Plastic bottle caps collected by the IMUSUS members from cafes, restaurants and waste recycling bins in the campus areas were used to create the work. ÇELİKBİLEK pointed out that while the project contributes to corporate sustainability strategies with this feature, it is also an important component for the zero waste campus project. In the workshop, firstly, a pattern study was carried out for the decided character. Afterwards, the bottle caps separated in colours suitable for the pattern were washed and sterilised. As the last stage, the bottle caps were placed on the prepared matrix and the pattern was started to be created.
Esmanur GÖZCÜ, member of the IMUSUS Supervisory Board, informed that the first work of the social responsibility project ‘From Waste to Art’ made with plastic bottle caps was completed with over 500 participants at the Kadıköy Environmental Festival, and stated that they continue to collect ‘waste’ bottle caps both inside and outside the campus areas, and that those who want to contribute to the project can leave the bottle caps they have collected to the IMU Sustainability Office. Expressing that they aim to exhibit the works made with the bottle caps in many public areas, GÖZCÜ pointed out that including the public in the preparation process of the works creates an important awareness about upcycling. GÖZCÜ continued her statements as follows: ‘In Turkey, many studies have started to be carried out on the recycling of waste, especially the zero waste project. These studies have contributed to the creation of an important awareness on waste recycling. However, the recycling process also consumes a certain amount of energy and produces carbon emissions. At this point, we would like to draw attention to upcycling, which is more advantageous both environmentally and economically. We produce new products that utilise these resources, which people frequently use in their daily lives and then become waste, and make them more valuable. Thus, we ensure that people gain awareness about the waste pyramid.’
With this social responsibility project carried out by the IMU Sustainability Club, 576 plastic bottle caps were prevented from becoming waste and remaining in nature for 450 years. Thus, in addition to contributing to the zero waste project of our University by reducing the amount of plastic waste in our campus areas, it also contributed to reducing the environmental footprint of individuals.
The “Plastic-Free July” social responsibility project, which has been managed by IMU Sustainability Office since 2022, was carried out by IMU Sustainability Club this year. The academic consultancy of the project was undertaken by Res.Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from IMU Sustainability Office team, who is also the academic advisor of IMU Sustainability Club, the club president Res.Asst. Furkan ERUÇAR and Lect. Zehra SAVAN.
Within the scope of the 2024 activities of the “Plastic-Free July” project, IMU Sustainability Club (IMUSUS) invited people to challenge them to remove a single-use plastic product they use in their daily lives every day for a month and step into a plastic-free life. During the challenge, environmental awareness was raised by providing information about the waste generation and environmental pollution caused by these plastic products every day through social media accounts. Following each of these informative social media posts, people were presented with sustainable alternatives with natural ingredients and packaging that do not produce plastic waste, which they could use instead of that plastic-containing product. IMUSUS also collaborated with 18 companies in Turkey and the world that are pioneers in sustainability and have sustainability labels in order to carry this awareness to consumer behavior. Thanks to this cooperation, on certain days of the challenge, with the sponsorship support provided by the companies, sustainable products were presented to both our students and staff and the public in order to create a new behavioral change in their daily lives. Thus, while enabling people to take the first step towards a plastic-free life, it also contributed to reducing the amount of single-use plastic waste and the environmental footprint of our campus community.
“Plastic-Free July” movement has been celebrated around the world since 2011, challenging people to eliminate single-use plastic products from their lives by raising awareness about plastic pollution and the amount of plastic they use.
