Industrial Waste Management for SMEs in Ankara

When the environmental impacts of SMEs are studied, their waste management is considered as one of the most problematic areas. Types and amount of industrial wastes vary according to the production process along with the advances in technology, capacity, equipment and raw materials used. In spite of the existence of the waste management legislation, which has been updated and revised frequently since 2005, the results of the inventory studies prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and the observations made on the field showed that industrial waste management is not applied properly, legal regulations and their implementation are not sufficient, a sufficient database could not be established, and problems are encountered in the determination and handling of wastes. Therefore, an Industrial Waste Management questionnaire has been applied to 94 industrial enterprises operating in Ankara with the aim of examining the problems and troubles encountered in the management of industrial wastes in the context of the current legislation in our country. Findings are evaluated together with the Ministry s inventory study, and they indicate that the auditing mechanisms and the sanctioning power of existing legislation should be re-questioned for the effective “waste management”. Additionally, based on the findings obtained in this study, many suggestions have been made to contribute to the better implementation of the industrial waste management systems.