TOPRAKTAN

Topraktan  are committed to solving  the problem of agriculture and food wastes.

We would like to use wastes in order to produce raw materials and after this phase would like to turn this materials into an end product. By this method we can make contribution to the cyclical economy,global warming and climate change.

We are at the center of the project as project director. We have find all the partners for the project and managed the whole project cycle from start to the end. We gathered all the parties together to find a solution for the waste problem.

If our solution is globally scaled we can reduce the waste amount and its damage to the universe.  Our solution will affect positively reducing the carbon food print and make contribution to using world's resources responsibly.

It will also touch the community in rural areas who are small and medium size producers.

We are making contribution to sustainable food systems by creating a whole cycle starts in the land and ends in the people's home. Zero waste is one of the important topics in our country in recent years and we also make positive effect for this topic reducing waste amount.

In our case each year there are more than 60.000 tonnes of tea fiber waste is produced in factories at the end of the tea harvesting seasons in Turkey. Those waste tea fibers after harvest get burned or end up on lands without any proper use.

There are 200.000 tea producers in Turkey. This project will touch them directly if we can scale it.

In general in Turkey 65 million ton agricultural wastes be produced.

The part of this wastes which cannot be used are disposed of by burning or mouldering.  
There are 2 million agricultural producers in Turkey. If we spread the project it has an enormous effect in agriculture sector. There are seven regions in Turkey producing different types of agricultural product. We would like to handle this problem region by region and search for the solution locally. So we can  create good examples for the other initiatives.

Our project is committed to utilize  agricultural and food wastes in order to produce value added  sustainable products for the consumers.

We have accomplished a demo project with our partners. We used inert tea fibers which are generated in the process of drying fresh tea into the black tea which is a waste for tea production companies. For this process we have collaborated one of the well-known tea brands of the world. 

By the help of our production partner which is an ambitious corporation in this subject,  this fibers were transformed into an bio composite material. Our partner combined tea fibers with plastic materials and this material were succeeded in the test for mass production in durable consumer goods sector.

At this point we collaborated one of the biggest brand in Turkey in durable consumer products sector .The company used this material to produce tea machines. The product from this partnership was planned to be promoted in an international event in September.

Now the system is working efficiently from start to the end; from the tea producer to the production company. Tea suppliers, R&D departments and product management teams all are involved in the project.  

Topraktan is currently working on environmental, social and economic impacts, especially in the agriculture and vertical agriculture and regions in Turkey.

We have  done many projects in Turkey in agriculture and due to that we are constantly in touch with producers and farmers(small and big sized). We constantly listen to them ,their problems and their needs.  Other than producers located in big cities of Turkey we aim to reach the producers in the Anatolia region in order to affect their life marginally. 

We would like to affect the people's life positively which live in rural areas and would like to raise their income by using their agricultural wastes.They will not just gain income by selling their crop but also their residues. Also we believe we can gain attention of the production companies which generally locates in big cities not in rural areas. They can also see there can be a potential target market for them in rural areas.

Consumers is also another group whose life will be affected. 

In general with using this wastes we contribute to decreasing the CO2 level and global warming and we can affect all the people positively in general. 

Residues and wastes in agri and food sector is a huge and growing problem for humanity and also one of the reasons of CO2 level,climate change and global warming.

As Topraktan we would like to do our part and make contribution to the solution of these problems by using waste materials and creating value added products from them.

At the end our target who live in rural areas will increase their income by selling these residues and by using worlds resources more responsibly we will make contribution to decreasing the harm of mass production processes .

Our solution is very unique in the market since we gathered all the parties together and manage the whole process from start to the end.

Our strong muscle is project management and the network we have in different kind of sectors. We can form a whole 360 project cycle and pursue all the processes within our partners.

There are very limited number of production companies focused on bio plastic and limited  number of corporations which would like to use bio plastic materials in their products.

We scout for production companies  and big corporations who can be involved in this project , create a good project cycle in which all the parties can win and manage the whole processes hands-on.

So as a consultancy company now we have no competitor in Turkey in this area.

Each year there are more than 60.000 tonnes of tea fiber waste is produced in factories at the end of the tea harvesting seasons in Turkey. Those waste tea fibers after harvest get burned or end up on lands without any proper use.

In our project our partner manufactures biodegradable biocomposite raw-materials from waste tea fibers by mixing these fibers with binders in different ratios using a variety of methods to upcycle an inert resource.

We aim to reduce the environmental damage caused by the plastics in nature by using this inert waste by upcycling and produce a cleaner alternative to plastics.

Our project is at the beginning of mass production process but due to the pandemic we are a little late at the project cycle.

Before beginning to produce our durable consumer products partner has done many tests and analysis for the heat, unflammability, unshrinkability etc.

The first prototype has manufactured in the industry now we have been waiting for each pieces analysis for mass production.

In September the end product will be available for customers for a limited number.

We can also provide a formal letter from our partner in durable consumer products sector.

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/three-major-environmental-challenges-clim-2020-finalists-address/

Raw Material

Bio Plastic Production

Mass Production of End Product

Activities

Searching for agricultural and food wastes/residues suitable for transformation

Transforming raw material into bio plastic material

Making test and analysis for mass production,manufacturing end products made by bio plastic material

Outputs

Farmers and producers gain more revenue of their agricultural production.

Production companies which adopts new manufacturing techniques will differentiate from their competitors.

Engineers who are searching for new manufacturing techniques will catch a good opportunity.

Consumers who intends to buy products which have been manufactured responsibly feel good.

Short Term Outcomes

They intend to stay in rural and not migrate to cities.

Decreasing amount of agricultural and food waste in rural areas.Decreasing amount of plastic use in manufacturing industry.

Increasing amount of products manufactured responsibly.

Long Term Outcomes

Agricultural production continues sustainably,the population of rural areas stay same

Decreasing amount of CO2, positive impact to global warming and climate change.

A good alternative to plastic use in the manufacturing industry in the long run.

Strong awareness among the consumers towards to the sustainable end/durable products and strong intention to buy these kind of products.

Since we are at the beginning of the project our effect on people is very small.

But in the next we can touch 1 % of tea producers (2000) and 10% (20000)of tea producers in the next five years.

Next year we would like to implement 3 more project like our demo  project.

We have already reached potential corporations and maintaining our meetings about the project with them.

In the next five years we would like to execute this projects in our region South East Europe and would like to impact more lives and make more contribution to the problem.

The next year the most important barrier may be the production part while transforming the raw materials into the bio plastic since we would like to cooperate with local parties like techno cities,universities and start-ups. We would like to make positive affect in the local community so want to make local partnerships in the first phase of production.

Over the next five years we may face financial barriers while trying to spread the project over the region. For this part we have to create a qualified team in order to handle all the projects and this has to be financed.

For the first barrier if it will be impossible to cooperate with local production companies we may partner with the ones which are already working on this subject and move forward. But our first priority is local parties.

For the second barrier other than hiring people we may make more partnerships with firms,NGO's,corporations   over the region to carry out the projects.

Our solution team consists of 3 people. 

These people are full time working on this solution.

Asli Uzunlu Akkulah: 

Founder and partner of an agricultural company which produces apple, vinegar and dried fruit  in a rural area in the center of Turkey. 

She is selected as one of the entrepreneurs which will be mentored by KAGİDER -The Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey - in agriculture sector in 2020.

Strong business development professional skilled in business planning,  learning&development,  course of action.

She is also acting as one the project partners of Building Entrepreneurial Capacity for Women from Rural Areas in Agrifood Business an EIT Food Programme.  Turkey is selected one of the 5 countries in Europe for this programme.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/asli-uzunlu-akkulah-3490786/

 Gülşah Seyhan:

Gulsah is one of the co-founders of Topraktan.

She will bring her skills and experience in agriculture, rural development and entrepreneurship to contribute specifically in the local scouting, entrepreneur capacity building and women empowerment.

She also continues her business development projects in the tea, anise, malt beverage, and fresh vegetables and fruits retail sector in the rural and urban areas.

She is also acting as one the project partners of Building Entrepreneurial Capacity for Women from Rural Areas in Agrifood Business an EIT Food Programme.  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/g%C3%BCl%C5%9Fah-seyhan-09a87334/

Dilek Şen Güven:

Dilek is one of the co-founders of Topraktan. She is an Industrial Engineer with an MBA degree.
With 17 years of experience her portfolio consists of several researches, studies and trainings on the topics of Entrepreneurship, Business Consultancy, Research and Analysis, Organizational Development, Productivity Management, System Management and use of data

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilek-sen-guven-25ba003/

Topraktan has done magnificent partnerships for its solution to the waste and residue problem.

We are partnering with a production company named Komporize Composites  for our tea fibers project. Komporize hold responsibility in the project to produce bio plastic material from inert tea fibers which  is a clean alternative to the plastic. 

One of the well-known durable consumer goods company of Turkey is also a partner of this project by using this bio plastic material to produce  tea machines.

Analysis were done by the company for  the mass production of tea machines (nonflammability,unshrinkability,heat,mould etc.)

Plans has changed due to pandemic but it had been decided that the end product- tea machine- will be in market for the consumers around October with  limited numbers. 

Our intervention is a service that enables waste recycling and recovery.

The main key resource is our raw material.We procure feed stock/raw material from producer&farmer.

Partners and Key Stakeholders: Technocities,universities, startups (Especially these collaborations will be made in regions where we procure raw material so we can spread the project over the country. There will be a new business opportunity for that region) 

Durable Consumer Products Company: Reaching the customer with an end product ( other form than an agricultural one) with a good story begins in land ends in their home. 

Consumer: A new sustainable product experience : social consciousness ,feeling good for doing&buying good. 

In every product which will be developed we will touch both the producers/farmers in the rural, the people living there and the end customer buying the product.

Biggest expenditure area will be research and development. Since we scale up it will also increase to research new processes and new products.

Our main channels of reaching customer are online media, word of mouth, NGO’s, local cooperatives.

We plan to invest our profits in R&D studies of the services.

Companies that create agricultural waste, production companies that can use as raw materials, consumers and nature will benefit from our service. Also these companies will be our customer.

Our impact measure in terms of social impact will be the amount of recycled waste and the amount of newly produced product.

Our revenue sources are planned as %60 by consultancy services and %40 by projects.

We would like to spread our business at first over Turkey and then over the region South East Europe.

We need more partnerships for the project especially in the mass production manufacturing industry so we have to develop our business development skills. We need mentoring for the business development process and new ways of creating project cycle.

We also need technical mentoring for transforming the wastes in to the material. 

Topraktan is  open to collaborate with all the parties ; farmers, NGO's, universities,techno cities, corporations so we really need to be well-known over the region and a strong marketing back-up.

It is also important for us to generate a qualified team so we need financial fund for it.

As any other company we would like to spread our business and projects over the country and maybe more.

So we need strong production partnerships with companies.

We are interested in different technologies to produce bio plastic materials.

We are ambitious in the business development area and searching for new ways to make new collaborations.

We also need a good marketing partnership to be heard.

We would be glad to meet whether there is any Solve member  who has done similar projects before. They will be a good mentor for us.

We also would like to partner with academics or companies for the technological/production process. We constantly search for new developments in this area but it will be helpful to be mentored by a professional.

Another important area we are searching help for is for the business development. We are very welcome to all the ideas in that area. We think that our model is an efficient good-working one but we aim to reach more producers and customers so we are looking ways for this.

At last we need a good marketing partnership. We would like to build awareness of this topic and  our story need to be heard strongly by the public.

We really think as a team that we are qualified for this prize.

Our studies is very important to climate change,global warming, responsible production and consumption ,sustainable cities and communities, industry,innovation and infrastructure.

We have been planning to expand our project at first in Turkey and then in our region South East Europe.

Agricultural production is an important sector and Turkey is a strong player in this area in the world. 

We would like to use this advantage and get more value from agriculture by using its residues,wastes and fibers. 

Turkey has an also strong industry production and qualified engineers who would be specialized in bio plastic materials.

We need fund to spread this sustainability projects and to promote them.