Istanbul's Recycling Workers Trade Hand Carts for ID Cards

The Istanbul Recycling Workers' Association was founded in 2022 with 87 founding members, though the group had been active since about 2010, and about 70 percent of members live in Atasehir and Umraniye. With ILO support its members set up the KATIK social cooperative in May 2024, which plans 10 formal jobs at first and 30 members including Syrians under temporary protection. In June 2026 Medyascope reported association president Ali Mendillioglu saying ID cards had been prepared for members, depots numbered, police informed and child-labour safeguards put in place as a municipal transition neared completion. He estimated about 1,500 independent recycling workers around Kadikoy. The association has no website of its own that could be verified.