Recycle Your Plastic Bottle, Top up Your Istanbul Card

Istanbul Municipality announced that they will soon introduce a deposit scheme for plastic bottles in a move to encourage recycling and prevent environmental pollution.

Passengers will be able to trade recyclables for credit on Istanbul cards, which are used to pay for public transportation, with the “reverse vending machines” across the city. It is yet to be certain how much will be loaded for how many bottles.

A total of 17,000 tons of domestic waste is collected in Istanbul, the country’s largest city. Six tons of the waste are processed and recycled at the municipality’s facilities.