Since 2016, BCSD Turkey and EBRD have joined forces to create awareness and accelerate the transition to circular economy in Turkey by providing tools and technical support that enable businesses to move away from the traditional ineffective way/concept to a more powerful way of doing business. The journey started with Turkey Materials Marketplace that was instrumental in creating an ecosystem around circular economy.

With the establishment of Turkey Circular Economy Platform, it is aimed to provide practical solutions, incentives, news and opportunities in the field of circular economy.

The platform at hand includes a knowledge hub, an e-commerce platform (Turkey Materials Marketplace), measurement tools, and offers training, financial opportunities, and consultancy services for companies that are truly looking to accelerate their transition to circular.

This joint effort successfully supports businesses to identify opportunities and provide solutions to turn them into reality.

In Turkey, climate crisis is expected to have long-lasting and deep socio-economic impacts, highlighting the urgent need to take collective action in the fight against climate change. Moreover, the local economic capacity to maintain the “take-make-dispose” paradigm is rapidly diminishing, with foreseen shortages of virgin materials.

Market recognition of circular economy was low thus the private sector needs guidance for circular transition.

In order to promote the active engagement of industrial companies located in Turkey with circular economy, Turkey Circular Economy Platform was established. The platform provides different tools to support the circular transformation of companies in Turkey through the development of circular opportunities and investments.

Awareness raising & marketing : Several events such as meetings and workshop have been deployed with more than 225 member companies.

Launch of a national call-to-action for a circular recovery from the pandemic: in cooperation with the EBRD, BCSD Turkey has launched a call-to-action that advocates recovery measures that are aligned with circular economy principles;

Industrial symbiosis opportunities: Since the start of this project, 18 full-scale material exchanges between member companies and 3 internal recycling initiatives took place saving 32.000 tons materials and created 2.000.000 € value in total. 

The Circular Vouchers: Platform has been offering a technical assistance program "The Circular Vouchers", developed by EBRD, to provide technical consultancy services for platform members’ to help them identify and implement circular economy practices in their businesses.

Circular Business Design Tracks: The platform offers CIRCO Circular Design Tracks -based on the CIRCO methodology, to power the development of the circular economy through circular products, services and business models in Turkish Businesses.