Photography, short video competition to raise awareness on recycling across Turkey

The National Photography and Short Video competition "Are You Aware?" aiming to raise awareness in the community about the environmental impact and recycling of garbage, has been launched in cooperation with Istanbul Airport operator IGA and the Mind Your Waste Foundation.

Continuing to work to hand down a clean and livable world to the future generations within the scope of the principles of sustainable development, IGA has collaborated with the Mind Your Waste Foundation to launch a National Photography and Short Video competition called "Are You Aware?"

Applications for the contest started on Dec. 23, 2019 and will last until Feb. 29, 2020. The competition, supported by Büyük Efes Sanat, has two categories of photography and short video. It is open to both amateur and professional participants.

Raising environmental awareness

The competition is aimed at drawing attention to the fact that our resources are depleted as if they are endless, that every piece of garbage thrown into the environment remains in nature for generations and that everyone is able to reverse this situation.

As a result of the contest, three winners from both categories will be granted cash prizes. A total of 20 works worth exhibiting in both categories will be determined and these works will be exhibited at Istanbul Airport for a certain period of time.

Competition results will be announced in March 2020. The competition jury consists of Environment and Urban Planning Deputy Minister Mehmet Emin Birpınar, expert psychologist Zuhal Baltaş, photography artist Gültekin Çizgen, CNN Türk program producer Güven İslamoğlu, IGA CEO Consultant Ülkü Özeren, IGA Corporate Communications Director Gökhan Şengül and Mind Your Waste Foundation board member Yasemin Vargı.

Emrah Bilge, general manager of the Mind Your Waste Foundation, which works to raise awareness on the reduction of waste production at its source and on the separation of waste produced and recycled, stated, "Garbage is everything we use until we decide it is actually garbage. We decide that an object is garbage when we think that it does not work for us and that we do not want to use it anymore and cast it away. We easily cast it away so that it is far from us and our eyes. Well, do we think where this garbage goes and what kind of impacts it has on nature and our own health? 'Are You Aware?' aims to make us reflect on the answers to these questions and to visually reveal what we can do as individuals." He called on everyone to participate in the competition with the works they have created by thinking and creating, raising awareness for the environment.

Continuing to work in line with the principles of sustainable development, IGA comes to the fore with its activities on environmental and sustainability issues at Istanbul Airport which has become a global transfer center with its operational successes. Touching on the works successfully maintained at Istanbul Airport, Ülkü Özeren, adviser to IGA CEO, said that the waste problem should be solved at its source. Emphasizing that the National Photography and Short Video competition "Are You Aware?" will create significant awareness on the environment, Özeren pointed out to the necessity of finding ways of waste formation first in order to use resources more efficiently.

Underlining that the amount of waste can be reduced as a result of these efforts, Özeren continued, "With respect for the world in which we live and, most importantly, with an understanding of sustainability, we carry out our work at Istanbul Airport, which is a global hub, within the framework of 'zero waste' principles. We have set our target to be zero waste and signed the zero waste declaration with our other stakeholders at the airport. Accordingly, we have attached importance to designing the entire waste management infrastructure with waste collection and processing capability in a way that allows recycling. We want to leave a clean and livable world for future generations."