As a human rights organization that fights against the discrimination and hate ideologies against LGBTI+'s, the 17 May Association cares about establishing and adopting principles that regulate daily functioning, including environmental rights.
Our association addresses the struggle for the right to environment, which imposes responsibilities on individuals, non-governmental organizations and states, without alienating it from human and animal rights, and reviews its duties and responsibilities in the office accordingly.
With the zero waste policy document that we have developed on this; we aim to contribute to leaving a healthy environment for future generations, to reduce the carbon footprint of our office, to prevent waste, and to use resources more efficiently.
17 May Association shares its office with two other associations (Aramızda Association and Rainbow Families Association. In the office, it generates daily kitchen, office, and toilet wastes by its 8 employees.
These wastes can be summarized as recyclable and non-recyclable household waste such as paper, cardboard and composite wastes, food residues, tea and coffee pulp, plastic wastes, toilet paper, napkin and paper towel wastes, glass-bottle wastes, vegetable oil wastes.
Employees are encouraged to cook meals in the office or bring their meals from home. Bringing meals to the office in reusable containers or cooking the meals in the office reduces packaging waste. Our offices have kitchen utensils and tools that are suitable for reuse.
Employees inform the restaurants that they do not want plastic cutlery, wet wipes or straws in cases of ordering from outside.
Offices are places where waste is generated due to the large number of shared tools. 17 May employees mindfully use tools and equipment that are used jointly or individually.
Storing items that may dry very quickly in a cupboard away from sunlight if possible, using both sides of the papers during photocopying, using blank surfaces of single-sided faulty printouts, using recyclable office products are examples of 17 May Association employees' sensitivity to zero waste.
In order to prevent excess waste, products that are open to upcycling are preferred instead of unbiodegradable or one-time use products. We use paper clips instead of staples that will be used one-time and turn into waste, paper envelopes or cardboard files instead of plastic bags, newspapers instead of bubble wraps.
Turkey ranks 16th in the world in paper consumption.[1] In our country, where consumption and zero waste awareness is not profound, the responsibility of institutions and businesses is great in order to bring this ranking to a much more ecological level.
For this purpose, 17 May e-mails many of its administrative and financial documents to its employees, and employees similarly assess and handle such documents online.
Both sides of the papers are being used in cases where printouts are needed, and the blank surfaces of the faulty printouts are being used as note papers.
17 May Association prefers to use durable products instead of disposable products in its office. Like packet teas instead of tea bags, glass-porcelain plates instead of plastic plates, cloth bags, glass bottles.
Preferring vegan products in the cleaning of the office is an ethical approach that is both valuable to reduce the carbon footprint of the office and is in accordance with the 17 May Association's vegan/vegetarian policy.
These products that are not tested on animals and do not contain animal products are being preferred because significantly less waste is produced during the production of these products.
Office workers were informed about the minimum electricity consumption of all electronic devices such as computers, lighting, printers, phones and faxes. Disconnecting unused electronic devices from the sockets or turning off the sockets if a socket switch is available are just some of these measures.
Sharing its office with two other organization during the periods while employees of our association work less in the office such as during the pandemic, is also an outcome of this effort.
Taking notes on papers is a very traditional and non-ecological method that increases waste. 17 May employees take their notes to online tools such as drive and calendars with the technological facilities provided by Google. In addition to creating a healtier in-office coordination, this method also aims to reduce waste.
Note taking at the meetings is done with refillable markers on a non-paper board.
We support the zero waste campaign of the local government of Çankaya district of Ankara, where our office is located. We are in contact with them for office wastes that we have separated for both of the address-based collection and waste box systems of Çankaya Municipality.
Zero waste: is a goal defined as waste management philosophy that involves preventing the wastage, using the resources more efficient, reviewing the reasons for waste formation, preventing or minimizing waste formation, and collecting and recovering waste at source separately.[2]
Recycling: is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products.[3]
Upcycling: Upcycling is taking something that's considered waste and repurposing it. The upcycled item often becomes more functional or beautiful than what it previously was.[4]
Carbon footprint: A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.[5]
[1] According to the results of a study conducted by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce in 2018.
[2] http://zerowaste.gov.tr/en/zero-waste/what-is-zero-waste
[3]https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics#:~:text=Recycling%20is%20the%20process%20of,your%20community%20and%20the%20environment.
[4] https://www.upcyclethat.com/about-upcycling/
[5] https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/