Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Student Club (IMUSUS) supported the “Green Future Festival” organized by Bakırköy Municipality at Ataköy Artists Park on Sunday, May 25, 2025 with interactive workshops. As part of the “Transformation Festival” activities between May 15 and June 15, the student club organized two different workshops at the festival, one focusing on upcycling of waste and the other on recycling and zero waste practices. The workshops, hosted by Bakırköy Municipality, were realized in cooperation with the IMU Sustainability Office.
During the festival, which was open to the public on Sunday between 13:00-16:30, IMUSUS organized a “Plastic Upcycling” workshop where plastic caps were transformed into works of art. In the workshop, which continued during the festival, plastic lids collected by the student club from the cafes and canteens on campus and waste cardboard from the markets were used to create a painting featuring the famous character Elmo from the Sesame Street show with the help of the participants. The participants actively contributed to the creation of the artwork by placing the lids in the correct area with the coordinates given to them and experienced sustainable development concepts such as “reuse”, “waste reduction” and “circular economy” in practice. With this creative recycling project, a total of 570 plastic caps were used, while approximately 765 g of plastic was upcycled and saved from waste. The completed work was the third work to be exhibited at the Transformation Festival exhibition.
The second workshop organized by IMUSUS within the scope of the festival was the “Waste Sorting Game” with environmental education for children. Designed by Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Office, this educational game aimed to convey basic information about the zero waste system in force in Turkey to children in a fun way. In the game, children were given cards representing plastic, glass, metal, paper, medical waste, electronic waste, organic waste and non-recyclable waste types, and were asked to correctly dispose of these wastes in color-coded boxes. Children were informed about the types of recyclable and non-recyclable materials and their awareness of source separation was improved. At the end of the event, children were presented with play dough molds produced by recycling plastic bottles in the plastic bottle recycling workshops organized by the IMU Sustainability Student Club within the scope of the “Transformation Festival”, giving children a permanent environmental message and introducing them to recycling products.
Many public institutions and non-governmental organizations operating in the field of environment and sustainability also contributed to the “Green Future Festival”. During the festival, Bakırköy Mayor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül OVALIOĞLU visited the Istanbul Medeniyet University stand and received information about the projects carried out and actively participated in the workshops. Stating that she appreciated the comprehensive work carried out by the student club members and Sustainability Office research assistants for a green future, OVALIOĞLU presented gifts to the Istanbul Medeniyet University team as a thank you.
These two workshops organized by IMUSUS within the festival increased the social inclusiveness of the “Transformation Festival” and appealed to a wide range of people from children to adults, students to housewives. Through these activities, the concepts of recycling and upcycling were shared with the participants in an interactive, fun and instructive way. In this way, both individual environmental responsibility and social sustainability were supported.
Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Student Club continues to raise awareness with sustainability-oriented social responsibility projects, efforts to combat climate change, waste management practices and circular economy-based activities. For new workshops and announcements to be held in the coming days within the scope of the “Transformation Festival”, the student club’s instagram account @surdurulebilir_imu can be followed.
The “Transformation Festival” project organized by IMUSUS is supported by the UNIDES program of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Türkiye.
