Hello to everyone,
We are entering the new year with beautiful projects. I told you we had a project last week. In this blog I will explain this project.
Our model
The problem is that lack of the small number of recycle bins in the environment, recycling cannot be done adequately and this increases our carbon footprint.
Survey results 33 people answered our survey. 85% of respondents know what recycling is. The ratio of those who have knowledge about recycling is quite high, but on the contrary; only 15% of respondents sort out their garbage. We think this is a big problem and we asked the participants what they think about the number of recycling bins. Nearly half of the respondents stated that there were not enough recycle bins in their environment. In addition, 40% of our participants said that they had done an upcycle before.
Model solution As a bat group, we thought that the small number of recycling bins was a serious problem. Based on the survey results, we concluded that almost half of the participants agreed with us. We need to increase the number of these recycling bins around us. Our Bat group plans the following practices in order to increase recycling.
1- Our target audience across the entire Turkey. So we will first invite the whole country for recycling. We will talk about our goals and share incentive posters on social media and raise awareness.
2- In line with our survey results, we will contact the municipalities in order to increase the inadequate recycling bins. We will start with Kayseri Büyükşehir Belediyesi. We will launch a challenge on social media and label municipalities. The municipalities will share data on how much they have increased these recycling bins and challenge each other. Thus we will reach the whole country
3- We should show people that they can design their own recycling bins. To this end, we will share videos and visuals that inspire recycle bin design.
4- In line with the survey results, we found that the rate of making upcycles that we found was insufficient. That’s why we’ll share visuals that encourage people to upcycle and raise them.

I want to add some news here In August 2019, Çankaya Belediyesi teams distributed recycling boxes and 222 interior boxes. Çankaya Belediyesi, which will implement the segregation of waste at source ’project in Yaşamkent, Alacaatlı and Dodurga neighborhoods, selected as a pilot region in October, will continue to collect packaging waste.

Vahit İŞBAŞARAN / LÜLEBURGAZ (Kırklareli), (DHA) – Lüleburgaz district of the town of Ahmetbey by the Municipality, the old election boxes were returned to schools as recycling bins.

Yaşar COŞKUN / SEYDİŞEHİR, (Konya) (DHA) – SEYDİŞEHİR Belediyesi placed waste collection boxes in schools in order to increase recycling awareness among students.

The main purpose of the bat group is to implement these and similar activities by all municipalities.

all the news are taken from hurriyet.com.tr

Here there are some links and photos about recycling and upcycling. You can also visit these videos.

This is and of our module 3 . Thanks for your attention. Stay with recycling

Betül AĞIRGELİR

Hello my dear readers!
This week I will share with you what I have done for a week to reduce the carbon footprint again.
I decided to use gas to a minimum with my homemates. We’ve saved natural gas by dressing thicker at home. My second big improvement is that I don’t use pet bottles anymore. Carry water in my own glass bottle to school. In this way, I also contribute to recycling. The last improvement is; I have been studying in the same room for a week with my friend in order to minimize electricity. We are 50% profit 🙂
yes I’ve shared with you a week developments, it’s your turn
What have you done this week?

Finally I have a small announcement to you. We are working on a project with our BAT group. Will soon post here. Stay tuned to read and join our project on recycling and carbon footprint.
By the way, in the new year for everyone I wish health, success, happiness and less harm to the environment 🙂
Stay with love.

Betül AĞIRGELİR

We have come to the final week of this amazing journey. I may not have accomplished much, but definitely, i have learned so much. So without further talking, I would like to share with you my progress for this week. First of all, my friends and I are still following the plan to reduce our carbon footprint. As for my personal plan, I am still committed to it. And because this week is the final exam week, usually a lot of carbon footprints are being wasted. As during the late studying hours, the light sources will be open almost the whole day and the electronic devices will be also on. As a result, my friends and I decided to study together and by that, we hit two birds with a stone (we helped each other to study and reduced our carbon footprint at the same time). Although this may be the end of my journey here, I will not stop reducing my carbon footprint.
And as I always say, no one can change in one week or even in one month. Changing needs time and efforts, and as long as we are trying, there is still hope.

Be part of this and reduce your carbon footprint.
Have a nice week..

Hello all,
Our bat group is interested in recycling to reduce the carbon footprint. We have examined the reasons for less recycling and tried to find solutions for them. First of all, we thought about why we could not reduce the use of plastic bags to 0 and we came to this conclusion. It is more difficult for people to carry bags than to buy plastic bags. If left as this option, people will say that they continue to buy bags. So we discussed whether this option could be a solution if you don’t sell the product to those who don’t bring your own bag. We are not sure about this, what are your ideas?
the second point, why is the use of recycling bins at not the desired rate and not correct? We believe that the number of recycling bins is insufficient and that their locations are wrong. Their number should be increased and they should be closer to settlement. In this way, it will be easier to reach people.
Have you ever thought about why pet bottle use so much? Because in our opinion the taste of the fountain waters is not good. If the fountain water is brought to a drinkable level, people can carry their water with the glass bottles and pour water from the fountain. So no one needs a vending machine to drink water.
We know they won’t solve the problem but even if it contributes to the reduction, it would be a good start for us.
Hope to see you as soon as possible
Cat4-Bat5

Hi, friends I came
Last week I shared a blog about what a carbon footprint is. In this blog, I will talk about what I have done to reduce my carbon footprint in a week.
First of all, I went to shopping with my bag. Thus, I have reduced the use of plastic as well as financially.
Secondly, I used public transportation. Moreover, I went to some distances on foot instead of using a vehicle
Another development; as you know, our student house had come to 500 tl gas bill. I have brought a solution to this with my girlfriends. In order to provide thermal insulation, we placed aluminum plates behind the heaters. In this way, we will be more environmentally friendly people.
The last thing I want to say; we collected the plastics, papers and waste oils we collected at home. With the leftovers, we fed street animals.
To summarize a week, I’m already starting to feel that I am an environmentalist.
Hey, what did you do for nature?

Betül Ağırgelir

Hello my environmental friends;
Today I want to tell you a little about the recycling stages of plastic. Firstly when buying the products you must check whether there is a recycling symbol on it. Because you know that not all materials are recyclable and we have to choose recyclable products. Let’s talk about how these collected plastics are recycled. Plastics collected from garbage cans are separated according to their contents. After separation, they are broken into specially prepared machines and turned into small pieces. Then, plastic raw materials are added to the plastics which are made into small pieces in the machines depending on the areas to be used. products recycled in this way are placed on the market.
Yes, I hope you learned something about plastic recycling. I wish you all a green day

Betül Ağırgelir

Hello again,
For the past two weeks, I have been talking about the changes I have accomplished in my life. But for this week I decided to do it in a quite different way. Because I know this issue is not only about me, I decided to raise awareness among my friends. As a start, we decided that this week we will only eat vegetarian food and we will stop buying plastic water bottles. Maybe this is not much, but I think it is not a bad start. Back to me, I am still committed to the changes from last week, though I have not added any new changes to my list.
And as I said before, no one can change in one week or even in one month. Changing needs time and efforts, and as long as we are trying, there is still hope.

Be part of this and reduce your carbon footprint.
Have a nice week..

Hello everyone,

Now, I came again and of courseI will continue to talk about what I have done to reduce the carbon footprint. I have read that you can save about $ 20 each month by hanging your laundry instead of using a dryer, and you can significantly reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, and I’m usually waiting to hang my laundry and let the sun dry them. Sometimes the weather doesn’t allow it because we’re in winter and it’s rainy or snowy. When this happens, I dry it in the room at home. So I reduce my carbon footprint.

We can also reduce our carbon footprint by using a dishwasher instead of washing dishes manually. Apart from that, we save both money and energy. So I tried to take care of that. One thing to keep in mind is not to operate the dishwasher until it is completely full, so that makes sense.

I wanted to share them this week. I also try not to get water with a pet bottle in general, I come to school with a glass bottle from home and so I use this glass bottle to drink water both healthier and without harming the environment.

I shared my experience, now it is your turn…

Good luck 🙂

Hello nature lovers,

We have started a new week and I will continue to give information about how we can reduce the carbon footprint that I mentioned in my last blog post. First of all, I’ve got a lot of attention this week. Our students and many people prefer to buy water from plastic bottles and drink them. However, it should be noted that the release of plastic bottles to the environment is one of the factors that increase the carbon footprint the most. Moreover, the production of plastic raw materials, water storage, transportation, transport of bottles for recycling, storage factors that increase carbon emissions.

The use of water treatment systems in homes, and the transport of water flasks in bicycles and backpacks are effective measures to reduce the carbon footprint. Also, I started to carry flasks in my bag, and that’s how I satisfy my need for drinking water, so I’m trying to reduce my carbon footprint.

As I mentioned in my article last week, I tried to eat as much organic food as I could this week. I tried to get as far away from packaged and processed food as possible. Especially open-air market should be preferred instead of supermarket to buy fruits and vegetables. So I went to the open-air market with my father this week and bought some organic fruit and vegetables. Supporting local producers, farmers, but not on the other side of the world, will reduce resource and exhaust gas spent for transport.

Throughout the day, a lot of material is being wasted. For some, it is just trash. However, for others, it can be a chance to create new stuff. As an architect student, we are trying to reuse all the possible cardboard waste while doing our current project. Which I consider as an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint. Along with that, I tried to keep the changes that I started last week. For instance: 

1. I am still unplugging all the devices when I am not using them.
2. I have written my shopping list for this week too so I will only use public transportation once a week.
3. I bought some organic fruits instead of buying junk food.

Although I tried to be committed to the changes I did last week, it is hard to change some habits. Like for example: 

1. I ate fast food once this week. Which I still consider as progress compared to what I used to do before.

Overall, no one can change in one week or even in one month. Changing needs time and effort, and as long as we are trying, there is still hope.