Call for participants from German municipalities and municipal companies Practitioners Workshop From Waste to Resource Planning Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Solutions July, 04-06, 2017, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey The international cities platform Connective Cities and its initiators, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Association of Cities (DST) and Engagement Global ggmbh / Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW), would like to invite - in the framework of the Municipal know-how for host communities in the Middle-East programme - up to 4 urban practitioners from Germany to the Connective Cities Practitioners Workshop on Planning Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Solutions to be held in Kocaeli, Turkey from 04 to 06 July 2017. Connective Cities is organizing the event in collaboration with the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Middle East and West Asia (MEWA) section which intends to utilize the results of this workshop for future policy making. With this call for participants Connective Cities is looking for 4 German municipal experts in the field of Solid Waste Management, who would be interested in sharing their experience and support the participating Turkish cities and municipalities with their challenges in this thematic area. Background As countries urbanise, production and consumption patterns change, which in turn results in increasing amounts of waste. Thus, the global trend of urbanisation goes hand in hand with the responsibility to adequately handle growing quantities of waste. In that regard Solid Waste Management (SWM) is an issue of high concern to cities in Turkey. In a recent survey of UCLG among their Turkish member municipalities, 91% of them revealed their actual needs in Waste Management improvement. Municipalities are charged with collecting, sorting, recycling and landfilling solid waste. While national entities are charged to establish legal frameworks for waste management, the responsibility to provide and operate this fundamental public service rests with local governments and their public utilities.
New challenges emerged these last years with the establishment of 16 new Metropolitan Municipalities and nearly 3 million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkish cities. Due to changing lifestyles, consumption habits and an increase of packaging production, Turkey is facing the challenge of a high amount of packaging waste. Meanwhile packaging waste covers 20 % of the weight and nearly 50% of the volume of the total amount of household solid waste. In 2014 a total amount of 28 million tons of solid waste was collected and disposed, produced by nearly overall 71 million inhabitants in 1400 municipalities. Of these 28 million tons of solid waste, 18 million tons were disposed in professional landfills and nearly 10 million tons were absorbed by municipal waste disposal units. Only 127,000 tons were brought to compost facilities. Even though the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization issued an extensive regulation on Waste Management in 2015, and there is a broader consciousness on environmentalism in general, the mobilisation of financial resources still is the central requirement for further modernisation. In the field of waste collection more initiatives which demand a waste separation system are emerging. These developments allow Turkey to further its requirements for a sustainable recycling management which goes along with its ambitious recycling objectives until 2020. On the other side Turkish municipalities lack a satisfactory number of staff with required expertise and enough contacts with experts at universities. Working continuously on the topic of an Integrated Solid Waste Management, Turkish municipalities are seeking capacity building opportunities. In this context a practitioners workshop to exchange experiences between German and Turkish municipalities is a contribution to the local capacity building and the solid waste management objectives and a starting point to kick off a practical thematic dialogue between German and Turkish municipalities as part of the Municipal know-how for host communities in the Middle-East programme. Objectives and Expected Results Acknowledging the complexity and variety of SWM practices, the workshop aims at enhancing capacities of participants to understand their local contexts and be able to choose a suitable mix from the different options available based on reliable and consistent data, identification of problems, framework conditions and respective objectives. The workshop, although taking into account regional challenges, is approaching Turkish and German municipalities to exchange their practices. This will allow a good understanding of legal, financial and technical capacity of German and Turkish, but also of large as well as small municipalities, as the metropolitan status that is extended to more Turkish cities is marking an important difference in service delivery competences and power. This bilateral national exchange approach is seen as a first step to be possibly further extended to involve more municipalities. After this initial thematic exchange and networking phase of cooperation between German and Turkish municipalities and in line with the goals of the Municipal knowhow for host communities in the Middle-East programme, it will be possible, in a following
phase, to further support the implementation of practical projects jointly developed between a German and a Turkish municipality. Subject In the face of increasing waste quantities, caused by growing populations and changing consumption patterns, some Turkish cities struggle to provide their citizens with adequate SWM services. A lack of financial and technical capacities is generally deemed responsible for the critical state of SWM systems in several cities. The concept of Integrated Sustainable Solid Waste Management (ISWM) addresses SWM in a comprehensive manner that includes both technical and governance dimensions along the four main functions of Municipal SWM: Prevention/Reduction Collection Reuse/Recycling/Recovery Disposal Managing these functions requires adequate technologies on the one hand and suitable institutional setting and governance systems in place on the other hand. The workshop examines both dimensions by nurturing a debate on the following questions: Which technologies and strategies can be applied to provide for effective collection, environmental-friendly disposal (composting) and high rates in resource recovery and recycling? Who are the main actors, and what are main differences in management models? What are the institutional and policy related prerequisites for effective SWM? Which measures can be taken to ensure financial sustainability and promote inclusivity of SWM services? What are the roles for different stakeholders in an integrated SWM system and how can such a system be managed? Work Process during the Workshop The workshop is structured in three steps, one building upon the other. Day 1: Getting Started: Introduction and Exchange on Good Practices As a first step, participants and organisers of the workshop will be invited to introduce themselves and outline the framework for the workshop by discussing the main themes and questions for the days ahead. In the afternoon, a number of participants are going to present Good Practices, which illustrate application-oriented strategies for improving Solid Waste Management. Day 2: Understanding Challenges: Peer-to-Peer-Advisory Session On the second day, participants will present and discuss actual challenges from their cities in small groups. Afterwards, all participants - or peers - in the group will be invited to give their
feedback, ideas and remarks on the presented studies. This peer-to-peer exchange, in which all participants are considered as experts, serves to better understand and analyse the individual city contexts as well as to identify first ideas addressing the presented issues. Day 3: SWM Action Planning Process The third day of the workshop sets out to provide participants with a strategic vision and tangible results towards improving SWM in their cities. The approach is based on action planning, which is an output-oriented, actor specific planning process. The session includes methodological input for the whole group and intensive planning sessions in smaller groups. Contact If you wish to participate and actively contribute to the workshop, please contact: Alice Balbo, Project Manager, responsible for the cooperation with the German Association of Cities (alice.balbo@engagement-global.de) Connective Cities - Community of Practice for Sustainable Urban Development Connective Cities will cover all event related costs, including travel costs (flight ticket (economy class), land transport, visa fees, meeting package as well as accommodation costs for participants (up to a maximum of 4 nights). Factsheet: All information at a glance Type of Event Time / Place / Duration Practitioners Workshop 04 06 July 2017; 3 days Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey Thematic Focus Technical and governance issues in integrated solid waste management Programmes related to: - Prevention/Reduction - Collection - Reuse/Recycling/Recovery - Disposal Participants - 30 participants, up to 4 German participants - Representatives of different stakeholder groups, e.g. local government and administration, private sector (service providers), civil society, academia - Other networks representatives from the region are also welcome Objectives / Benefits - Facilitating the exchange of experiences among urban practitioners from Turkey and from Germany - Analysing the local context and its challenges for SWM - Providing peer-to-peer advisory services for applied solutions for SWM
Methodology Cost sharing Language Contact 1. Getting Started: Introduction and Exchange on Good Practices 2. Understanding Challenges: Peer-to-Peer-Advisory Session 3. SWM Action Planning Process Connective Cities will cover all event related costs, including travel costs (flight ticket (economy class), land transport, visa fees, meeting package as well as accommodation costs for participants (up to a maximum of 4 nights). The event is to be held in English with translation into Turkish Alice Balbo (alice.balbo@engagement-global.de) On behalf of: Implemented by: In the framework of: The Connective Cities practitioners workshop in Turkey is organized in cooperation with: