Waste collection service in municipalities: statutory duty, separate collection and record-keeping

Article 14 of Law No. 5393 on Municipalities counts cleaning and solid waste services, provided they are of a local, common nature, among the services the municipality shall carry out or have carried out. Sub-paragraph (g) of Article 15 of the Law places, among the municipality's powers, the carrying out and commissioning of all services relating to the collection, transport, separation, recovery, disposal and storage of solid waste.

The division of duties in metropolitan areas is set out in Law No. 5216 on Metropolitan Municipalities. Under Article 7 of the Law, the metropolitan municipality prepares the metropolitan solid waste management plan and carries out the recovery, storage and disposal services other than the collection of solid waste at source and its transport to the transfer station. Under the same article, district municipalities collect solid waste and transport it to the transfer station in line with the metropolitan solid waste management plan. For this reason, the daily planning of the collection service is the district municipality's task in metropolitan areas; however, the plan must be consistent with the metropolitan municipality's higher-level plan.

Article 8 of the Waste Management Regulation, published in the Official Gazette dated 2 April 2015, numbered 29314, lists municipalities' duties and responsibilities by type of municipality. One of the obligations common to all municipalities relates directly to field data: the municipality must keep records of the vehicles it uses to transport the waste it is responsible for managing, establish a vehicle tracking system, and submit the records to the Ministry and the provincial directorate upon request.

The same article assigns metropolitan district municipalities the duties of preparing waste management plans — including the prevention and reduction of waste generation — and submitting them to the Ministry; collecting waste separately at source; transporting it to the transfer station; setting up a dual collection system and establishing waste collection centres; and submitting information and documents on collected waste to the Ministry. Similar obligations are also listed for provincial, district and township municipalities, with the waste management plan to be submitted to the provincial directorate.

The Zero Waste Regulation, published in the Official Gazette dated 12 July 2019, numbered 30829, obliges local administrations to establish a zero waste management system. The Regulation was comprehensively amended on 9 October 2021. Under Article 9, municipalities are required to develop infrastructure for collecting waste separated at source without mixing it, to place the system on the agenda of the city council, to reflect programmes and policies on integrating existing waste services into the system in their strategic plans and budgets, and to determine and apply full-cost-based tariffs.

Article 14 of the Regulation also sets out the form of the collection equipment. In collection from households, blue equipment is used for recyclable waste and dark grey equipment for other waste; equipment is placed in at least a dual set on streets, roads and public areas, and green equipment is added for glass where needed. To obtain a silver, gold or platinum zero waste certificate, a minimum triple collection system must also be set up, with brown equipment added for biodegradable waste. The amendment also made it mandatory for municipalities to employ a number of environmental engineers or environmental officers determined according to population, and for local administrations to set up waste collection centres.

Sub-paragraph (m) of the second paragraph of Article 9 of the Zero Waste Regulation, following the 2021 amendment, introduces a regular reporting timetable for municipalities. Under this provision, the municipality reports monthly information on waste collected within the scope of the system through the Zero Waste Information System by the fifteenth of the following month, completes data checks on the previous year's information by the end of March each year, and keeps the information and documents underlying the reports.

Monthly reporting requires a verified quantity figure to be on hand by the end of the month. The obligation to keep the documents underlying the reports means that every reported figure must be traceable, after the fact, to a specific trip, vehicle and delivery slip.

Article 13 of the Zero Waste Regulation lists the current-state assessment as the first step in setting up the system: the source, type and quantity of waste, the methods of storage, collection and transport, temporary storage areas, and the places to which waste is delivered are all determined. The same article also requires that outputs such as the amounts of separately collected waste be kept on record. This framework also describes the data that must be kept in planning the collection service.

When this data is kept in separate units and in different formats, more than one answer is produced for the same question. When the number of containers sits with the cleaning services unit, trip information with the vehicle unit, and quantity information on the facility's weighing slips, the monthly report turns into a table that has to be recompiled every month, and errors come to light during audits.

Under Article 41 of Law No. 5393, the strategic plan and performance programme form the basis for preparing the budget; the strategic plan is not mandatory for municipalities with a population below 50,000. Article 56 of the Law requires the mayor to prepare an activity report explaining the activities carried out under the strategic plan and performance programme, the status of targets and achievements measured against performance indicators, and the reasons for any deviations.

The Zero Waste Regulation likewise explicitly requires that programmes and policies relating to waste services be reflected in the strategic plan and budget. Indicators such as the separate collection rate, compliance with collection frequency, and service per container can only be produced from the records listed above. A municipality that keeps its records in order both files its statutory reports on time and can budget its need for vehicles, crews and equipment without relying on estimates.