Refika's Kitchen Films Üsküdar's Zero Waste Market Project and Its OCTOEN Composter

Refika'nın Mutfağı (Refika's Kitchen), the Turkish YouTube channel of chef Refika Birgül, published a video on December 23, 2025 about Üsküdar Municipality's "Zero Waste Üsküdar, Zero Waste Market" project in Istanbul. It shows the project's first operating day at Bulgurlu street market and market waste going into an OCTOEN composter. The video is in Turkish.

What the video shows

Fruit and vegetable waste from the market stalls is collected, shredded and loaded into an OCTOEN ECO-1000 KSN set up at the market. The machine runs a 12-24 hour composting cycle, so the waste is handled where it is produced instead of being hauled away.

In the video description, the channel thanks OCTOEN for the "domestically made composting technology" that helped make the project possible. The machine on site was built in our factory in Türkiye.

Where the project stands

The project started at Bulgurlu market in September 2025. The compost is tested in accredited laboratories, then given to residents free of charge, and some of it goes to the district's parks and community gardens. At the Üsküdar Environment Festival in June 2026, the project was reported to have turned about 100 t (110 US tons) of organic waste into compost. It also won the KentFest 2025 award for the best urban carbon reduction project by a municipality.

Read about the project's first year, or see our other municipal projects on our references page.