Turkish Firm Pledges To Stop Using Single-Use Plastic

Turkey's leading conglomerate Koc Holding promised on Thursday to stop using single-use plastic products as of the end of 2020.

"We are committed to stop disposable plastic consumption in all Koc Group companies and organizations, with over 90,000 colleagues," Levent Cakiroglu, the CEO of the company, said in a press release.

Following an art exhibition, Istanbul Biennial, which was themed on ocean plastic waste and was sponsored by Koc Holding, Cakiroglu noted: "The amount of plastic waste that we could not deal with turned into pollution which threatens the environment and human health."

Underlining the firm's decisiveness in tackling the issue of ocean pollution, he stressed that plastic waste now covers over three million meter squares (some 32 million feet squares) in the Pacific Ocean.

Cakiroglu underlined that to stop using single-use plastic products, the company would find alternatives and increase reuse and recycling.

"This promise is only the beginning, we will enhance our efforts on [the issue of] plastic use," he added. -