Procedures and Principles Amending the Procedures for Implementing the Regulation on the Recycling Contribution Fee

The “Procedures and Principles Amending the Procedures and Principles for Implementing the Regulation on the Recycling Contribution Fee” were prepared by the General Directorate of Environmental Management of the then Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation and put into effect by a Ministerial Approval dated 23 July 2020 (No. 66745475-145.07-155226). The document was not published in the Official Gazette; it appears on the Ministry’s website as an announcement with an attachment. It contains additional provisions made to clarify how the recycling contribution fee (GEKAP) is applied, supported by worked examples.

What is the legal nature of these procedures?

Article 6(1)(c) of the Regulation on the Recycling Contribution Fee tasks the Ministry with setting out procedures and principles on the products in the Law’s annexed List (1) and on descriptive and explanatory matters concerning the Regulation’s application. The “Implementation Procedures and Principles” prepared under that authority were first put into effect by a Ministerial Approval dated 7 February 2020 and then updated by an Approval dated 29 June 2020; this document in turn amends them.

The document therefore creates no new obligation at the level of the Law or the Regulation; it shows through examples how existing provisions apply.

Which subjects does the amendment cover?

The document has seven articles and deals with the following:

• Article 1: the definition of businesses that must have their declarations approved by an environmental officer, with an example.
• Article 2: an example on packaging, clarifying that wire and straps used to bind pressed and baled waste are not packaging.
• Article 3: examples on single-use cups, plates and similar items at points of sale.
• Articles 4 and 5: the definition of electrical and electronic equipment, with explanatory examples.
• Article 6: a new example on tyres.
• Article 7: reviews by sworn-in certified public accountants and independent audit firms.

How is the need for environmental officer approval determined?

Businesses placing products on the market that employ a permanent environmental officer, obtain environmental management services from environmental consultancy firms, or are required to set up an environmental management unit must have their notifications and declarations approved by the environmental officer once the GEKAP they pay exceeds a set threshold. The document clarifies that the length of the declaration period is taken into account when calculating this threshold: the total declaration amount is divided by the number of months the period covers. Its example shows that for the same business an amount above TL 300,000 in a six-month period requires approval, while TL 150,000 or less in a three-month period does not. The current threshold is in Article 10 of the Regulation and is increased by the revaluation rate.

What do the packaging, electrical equipment and tyre examples show?

A coffee seller that serves products in single-use cups declares and pays on the beverage packaging amount; if it also serves food, the tariff for the plate material applies. A clothing store that also sells food or drink as part of the same activity incurs the obligation for the single-use items used in those sales.

For electrical equipment, if a spare battery comes with an imported machine, the batteries must be declared and paid for separately; the battery inside the machine does not. Products made and sold domestically that are exported carry no obligation. For tyres, no declaration or payment is needed for tyres of non-motorised equipment such as hand carts or bicycles.

What should be checked in practice?

Under Article 7, reviews of declarations by sworn-in certified public accountants or independent audit firms are requested if the Ministry considers them necessary and are submitted to the Ministry. When deciding which tariff group a product falls into, businesses should read these examples together with the Regulation and the declaration rules of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance.