The “Smart Waste Collection System Project,” supported by Mevlana Development Agency within the scope of the Resource Efficiency Development Financial Support Program and carried out by Selçuklu Municipality, has been successfully completed.

MEVKA Secretary General İhsan Bostancı, Selçuklu Deputy Mayor Mehmet İnançlı,  Provincial Director of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Hülya Şevik, Chamber of Mechanical Engineers Branch Manager Levent Şam, headmen of the neighborhoods in the project's implementation area, and representatives of relevant institutions and organizations participated in the closing meeting held for the completed project.

Speaking at the meeting, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General İhsan Bostancı said, “As an Agency, under the coordination of the Ministry of Industry and Technology General Directorate of Development Agencies, we continue our efforts to contribute to the all-round development of our region through financial and technical support programs we implement for SMEs, public institutions and organizations, and non-governmental organizations in the TR-52 Konya-Karaman Region. In this context, as an Agency, we announced the Resource Efficiency Development Financial Support Program in 2020 to ensure savings in current resource use with innovative methods for developing resource efficiency in the region, and we supported many projects from our stakeholders in our region. One of these was the Smart Waste Collection System Project submitted to our Agency by our Selçuklu Municipality, which was completed today and to which we attach great importance in terms of its aims and objectives. Within this project, to which our Agency transferred 765 Thousand TL, 1400 smart waste measurement devices and 1 Smart Waste Collection System software were purchased, and a transition was made from an experience-based working system to a Smart Waste Collection System that provides route optimization with dynamic data received from containers. Thanks to this system, which eliminates the problem of resource inefficiency, both fuel savings will be achieved by using less fuel to collect unit waste, and an efficient working system for a cleaner environment will be created by reducing carbon emissions released into nature. Stating that our work on resource efficiency, which is of great importance for both our country and our region, will continue as it has been until today, I thank Selçuklu Municipality, which put great effort into the preparation and implementation of the project, and the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, which is the project partner, and I wish the project to be beneficial.”

Subsequently, Selçuklu Deputy Mayor Mehmet İnançlı, stating that Selçuklu is larger than 50 provinces in terms of population and grows faster than many cities in terms of growth rate, said, “As a municipality, we have a corporate culture that works not only with solutions that respond to today but also with a planning approach that creates a vision for tomorrow. The Smart Waste Collection System also holds an important place for us. We have made significant progress on this path, which we embarked on in 2018 as a pilot application with the analysis of scientific data, detailed reports, and benefit-cost analyses. According to the data obtained thanks to the Smart Waste Collection System, we have determined that a 28% improvement has been achieved in the number of underground garbage containers used in the same area, a 31% expansion and improvement has been achieved in the waste collection zone areas of garbage trucks, 7300 liters of fuel savings and 20,000 kg less CO2 emissions have been realized in 1 zone in 2 years, and approximately a 30% improvement has been achieved in total working time usage. In addition, with our ongoing efforts, we have fully controlled the waste collection process and garbage container fill rates, and by making efficient waste management planning, we have increased the satisfaction of our citizens regarding containers and garbage collection. While garbage is collected more efficiently and environmentally friendly thanks to route optimization, carbon footprint is reduced by contributing to the reduction of traffic density. To increase all these contributions and expand the project in our district; our Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and our Municipality submitted our project to Mevlana Development Agency as project partners and were entitled to receive support. I would like to thank Mevlana Development Agency for its support for our project and our Provincial Director of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and all our stakeholders for their valuable contributions to our project.”