MİGROS GROUP SCALED UP ITS WASTE MANAGEMENT

04 June 2013

Besides Contributing to Electric Power Generation With Its Organic Waste, Migros Group Will Accept Obsolete Electrical and Electronic Goods From Consumers and Ensure They Are Recycled Through Its Electronic Waste Project

Always exhibiting its environment friendly attitude with the innovative implementations it has developed so far, the Migros Group is continuing its implementations which embrace all consumers in order to increase environmental consciousness and awareness. As a provider of support for recycling packaging waste such as paper, glass, plastic, metal and batteries via the recycling kiosks in its stores and as a contributor to electric power production with the recycling of its organic waste materials, the Migros Group is now scaling up its recycling implementations with the ‘Electronic Waste Collection Project’ which will be commenced on the Environment Day, the 5th of June. The Migros Group, from now on, will collect in its stores any obsolete products in electrical and electronic categories, from big house appliances to lighting products, from small house appliances to sports goods, and ensure they are recycled. It will continue to make contributions to the economy with its environmental endeavors which aim at creating awareness.


In order to leave a healthier and livable environment to the future generations, the Migros Group is continuing to allocate time and resource for the projects it brings to action and thus make contributions to the economy. Having been continuing the implementations of ’Recycling Kiosk’ in its stores for recycling waste materials since 2010, the Migros Group is starting a new project, effective from the 5th of June 2013, which will expand the scope of the existing ‘Waste Management and Recycling’ implementations. The Migros Group, which will reveal its sensitivity for recycling with its ‘Electronic Waste Collection Project’ once again, aims to collect the electrical and electronic waste materials which, when not disposed properly, contaminate the air, water resources and the earth and endanger the environmental and human health.

From computers to irons, all kinds of electrical and electronic goods will be regained through recycling
Once the Electronic Waste Collection Project is commenced initially in a total of 371 stores including MM Migros, MMM Migros, 5M Migros, MİDİ Tansaş, Maxi Tansaş and some Macrocenter stores, the Migros Group will present to the customers who deliver their electrical and electronic goods to the stores a document which states that the waste good has been received by the store personnel. The waste goods, after being stored in stores in distinct categories such as small house appliances and computer equipments, will safely be transferred first to the Migros Group distribution centers and then to the recycling facilities of companies which are licensed by the Ministry of Environment and there they will be recycled with optimum efficiency. The amounts of the electrical and electronic waste materials will be periodically reported to the Ministry of Environment.

The environmentalist Migros kept instilling consciousness day after day and acted as a mediator for the collection of 8 million pieces of waste materials.
Inviting everyone to its stores for saving energy, protecting natural resources, saving raw materials, chemical materials and forest resources and for a healthy world to be achieved through environment protection, the Migros Group carried out many environmental projects in collaboration with its consumers to this day. Putting the Recycling Kiosk into use in its stores for the first time in 2010; Migros not only had the packaging waste materials such as paper, glass, plastic, metal and the batteries brought in by the customers stored in the related sections of these kiosks and helped their recycling, but also presented the opportunity to adopt, through the agency of WWF-Türkiye (Society for the Protection of Nature), the sea turtles which have been living for 110 million years and now which are nearly extinct. Having collected almost 8 million pieces of waste materials via its environmentalist kiosks, the Migros Group also put into practice the environment friendly pouch project for a cleaner environment. Making the reusable cloth bags available to consumers as a second step, Migros is continuing to work intensely to bring the international standards into its environmentalist implementations. Finally, achieving the LEED GOLD Certificate (Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design), the green building certificate which is the most recognized and the most acceptable green building certificate in the world, for its Bodrum Maya M Migros store, Migros has become the first and the only retail store which has received the LEED GOLD Certificate in Turkey.

7600 tons of organic waste and 760.000 m3 biogas and 1.4 million kw electric energy have been obtained
Setting up the “Integrated Waste Management Plan” with zero waste goal in its stores and putting the most ideal disposal method into practice, Migros has opted for biogas and compost production as the sustainable energy resource which is convertible to electrical and heat energy. Obtaining 7600 tons of organic waste and 760.000 m3 biogas and 1.4 million kw electric energy in one year from its 74 stores in Istanbul, and after the biogas production processing of 7600 tons of waste material, the Migros Group has obtained 3770 tons of a kind of soil improver from the remainder and helped the formation of raw materials with a system which enabled to use it as fertilizer.

Collaboration with the Aegeans for a green Aegean Region

Having been collaborating with the Tansaş customers for environmental issues with regard to global warming for the last 6 years, the Migros Group has redounded forested lands of 450.000 saplings in the Aegean region, namely in Dikili, Torbalı, Şirince, Çeşme, Seferihisar and Urla, in place of the thousands of burned and stricken trees in cooperation with the Aegean Foundation of Forestry.