Waste Management

Waste Management at Türk Telekom

In order to prevent the rapid depletion of natural resources and to ensure that recyclable wastes are reintroduced into the economy, we strive to separate all wastes at the point of generation. We carry out our waste management in compliance with the country's legislation and our Sustainability Policy.

Waste is generated when operational products and materials, such as fibre and copper cables, generator fuels, accumulators, batteries, and electronic materials used to provide services in our field activities, as well as paper, plastic, metal, glass, toner, and cartridges resulting from our office activities, reach the end of their useful lives and become idle. We manage all our waste by following national and international requirements. We record hazardous and non-hazardous wastes generated as a result of our fieldwork and office activities in the Integrated Environmental Information System of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. We also create Mobile Hazardous Waste Transportation (MoTAT) records for the tracking and monitoring of hazardous waste by the Ministry.

We collect all wastes resulting from our field activities in the permitted temporary storage areas in compliance with legal obligations, and we ensure the recycling and disposal of wastes within this framework. All these efforts are in support of EU Green Deal activities.

As part of our Zero Waste project, which we have been carrying out in all our offices, we have been working since 2019 to make our employees' daily consumption habits environmentally friendly.

Zero Waste

In 2022, thanks to the waste management activities we carried out;

• We saved 1,232 kWh of energy by recycling 29 tonnes of waste glass.
• We rescued 3,529 trees by recycling 208 tonnes of waste paper.
• With 3,880 tonnes of waste metal recycling, we were able to stop the release of 3.680,631 tonnes of greenhouse gases into the nature.
• By recycling 1,811 tonnes of waste plastic, we conserved 29,513 barrels of oil.
• Furthermore, by recycling all our waste, we saved 16,368 cubic metres of storage space, 14 million kWh of energy, and avoided the emission of 4.800 tonnes of greenhouse gases into the environment.

In the reporting period of 2022, we managed to reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated by approximately 5% or around 390 tonnes compared to the previous year thanks to fieldwork and office activities.

Recycling of Electronic Waste

We conduct activities in cooperation with the Turkish Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİSAD) for the recycling of electronic waste generated as a result of our services. In this context, more than 33 tonnes of domestic electronic waste were collected and recycled between 2017 and 2022. Additionally, during these years, we organised electronic waste collecting campaigns with our employees in order to contribute to environmental awareness. In this way, the revenue generated from the recycled waste was donated to educational institutions in order to support education. At Türk Telekom, we carry out all our environmental activities in line with national legislation and international standards. We also manage and certify all of our service areas in line with ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standards. We understand that reintroducing waste into circular economy supports economic development and strengthens the financial performance of companies.