Muratpaşa is a central district in Antalya and an important tourism centre, attracting almost half of the tourists visiting Turkey.
With a mild climate, rich cultural history and stunning coastline, Muratpaşa and surrounding area Antalya is home to more than half a million residents. In the summer the population doubles.Its historical old town Kaleiçi, business, shopping and entertainment centers, 715 parks, hospitals, schools and other public institutions and organisations indeed make Muratpaşa the heart of Antalya.
Muratpaşa Municipality prioritises equity in its work. The municipality formed their circular economy model on the basis of ecological sensitivity and has built a model that creates equity for both the municipality and the residents of the district with its waste collection and recycling system. By doing so they have set an example for the whole of Turkey.
Turkish municipality of Muratpaşa (Turkey) lives by the award-winning motto “Don’t throw, save, win”, which is to say Muratpaşa has quite the track record in zero waste initiatives. The new ICLEI member regularly organises trainings on environment and recycling in schools, raising of generations with high environmental awareness under the project, “The Environmentally Friendly Neighbor Card” project initiated in April 2016.
The project is Turkey's first and only award-winning recycling project, which also forms the basis of the "Zero Waste" project carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation. Within the scope of the project, packaging waste, electronic waste and vegetable waste oils are collected from households on a specified day and time. In return, residents receive credits for their waste contributions, loaded onto cards, which can be used in places with bank POS devices, online shopping or in cash.
Muratpaşa Municipality regularly organizes trainings on environment and recycling in schools located within the boundaries of the district. It is aimed to contribute to the raising of generations with high environmental awareness.
Along with school trainings for environmental awareness, Muratpaşa organises the Environment Festival each year, inviting all stakeholders and citizens together to participate in workshops, events and concerts surrounding environmental initiatives .
As of 2022, Muratpaşa Municipality has started working to create a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan within the scope of combating global climate change. An Action Plan is in the works which will contribute to adaptation to climate change on a local scale, and outline plans to develop and implement solution proposals to determine risk and vulnerability analyzes.
Muratpaşa Municipality also leads many other environmental actions. For example the municipality recently led a climate change workshop titled, “+ 0.5 The Future of the Mediterranean”, carried out a seabed cleaning in the historical Kaleiçi Marina, and has created the Love Mill Project that converts solar energy into electricity in municipal parks, with the theme of "Protecting the Environment: Local Communities Take Action". The Love Mill Project received the title of 'partner organization' within the scope of the European Local Democracy Week events attended by more than 200 municipalities from 15 countries.
- Ümit Uysal, Mayor of Muratpaşa
Muratpaşa is one of ICLEI's newer members, having joined in 2022.
