Environmental Permits and Licences in Turkey

An industrial plant in Turkey that emits to air, discharges wastewater, generates significant noise or treats waste needs an environmental permit, and in many cases a licence, under the Environmental Permit and Licence Regulation. The route always starts with a one-year temporary activity certificate and ends with a five-year permit issued through the Ministry's e-permit system. This page explains the permit topics, the timelines, the new integrated permit rules for large installations and the obligations that follow, for foreign-owned plants and the EPC contractors who build them.

What an environmental permit in Turkey is

An environmental permit in Turkey is the operating authorisation that sets the conditions under which a listed facility may emit pollutants to air, discharge wastewater, emit environmental noise or discharge to deep sea. Where the facility also treats or recovers waste, the document is an environmental permit and licence. It is valid for five years and renewed through the e-permit system.

The rules are in the Environmental Permit and Licence Regulation (Çevre İzin ve Lisans Yönetmeliği), published in the Official Gazette of 10 September 2014, No. 29115, and amended several times since, most recently in 2023. The regulation sorts facilities by environmental impact into two annexes. Annex 1 facilities, with higher impact, are handled by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. Annex 2 facilities are handled by the Ministry's provincial directorates. Where a site has both, the whole site follows the Annex 1 route.

Facilities not on either list do not need a permit, but they must still meet the emission, discharge and noise limits of the sector regulations. A listed facility that has no air emissions and no wastewater discharge can ask the provincial directorate for an exemption.

Environmental permit and licence topics

A permit covers one or more topics. A licence certifies technical competence for waste-related activities. The table shows what each covers and the main regulation behind it.

A plant that discharges to an organised industrial zone (OSB) sewer or a municipal sewer usually needs a connection permit from the OSB or the water utility rather than a discharge permit topic. That connection permit is often forgotten in project schedules, so we list it in the permit matrix from day one.

The temporary activity certificate

A new listed facility cannot apply directly for its final permit. It first obtains a temporary activity certificate (Geçici Faaliyet Belgesi, GFB), which allows it to operate for one year while it proves that it can meet the limits. The application is filed electronically by a Ministry-certified environmental consultancy, the operator's own environmental management unit or, for Annex 2 facilities, a certified environmental officer, using an electronic or mobile signature.

The application includes the information and reports listed in Annex 3A and 3B of the regulation. In practice that means the EIA decision or the opinion that no EIA is needed, zoning and building documents, process descriptions, emission and discharge data, the noise report and the waste management information for licence topics. The authority reviews the file within 30 calendar days. If documents are missing, you have 60 calendar days to complete them and the resubmission is reviewed within 20 calendar days.

Once the GFB is issued, the operator has 180 calendar days to apply for the environmental permit or permit and licence. That window is when stack measurements, wastewater analyses and noise measurements are carried out by accredited laboratories under real operating conditions. Plants that start up late in the GFB year, or run at low load, often struggle to produce representative measurements in time.

Environmental permit process and timeline

1. Permit matrix and gap check. We list every permit topic, connection permit and licence your plant needs, and check the design against the limit values. Allow 2 to 4 weeks, ideally during detailed design.
2. Pre-application documents. EIA decision, zoning and building licence, Turkish company documents, process and layout drawings, and the e-permit account. Allow 2 to 6 weeks, in parallel with construction.
3. GFB application and review. 30 calendar days for the review, plus up to 60 days for corrections if needed.
4. Measurements during the GFB. Emission, wastewater and noise measurements by accredited laboratories, usually 1 to 3 months after stable operation.
5. Permit application. Filed within 180 calendar days of the GFB. The authority reviews the file and may carry out a site inspection.
6. Environmental permit issued. Valid for five years, with renewal applications due at least 180 calendar days before expiry.

Integrated permits and the SYD certificate

Large installations now face a second layer. The Industrial Emissions Management Regulation (Endüstriyel Emisyonların Yönetimi Yönetmeliği), published on 14 January 2025, No. 32782, entered into force on 1 December 2025. It is Turkey's alignment with the EU Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU, and it introduces the Green Transformation in Industry certificate (Sanayide Yeşil Dönüşüm Belgesi, SYD).

Facilities carrying out the activities in Annex 1 of that regulation must file the SYD application together with their environmental permit application, and the permit cannot be completed without it. Facilities are graded from A to F according to how well they meet best available techniques (BAT, mevcut en iyi teknikler in Turkish). New plants must be designed to reach at least category D. Existing plants must hold at least category F by 31 December 2028 and at least category D by 31 December 2030. Sector BAT communiqués, such as those for energy production and the chemical industry published on 30 November 2025, set the reference levels.

For a foreign investor building a plant now, the practical message is to check BAT compliance at the design stage. Retrofitting abatement equipment after the permit application is far more expensive than specifying it in the EPC contract.

Ongoing obligations after the permit

The permit is the start of a compliance routine. The obligations that most often catch new operators are these.

• Environmental management services. Under the Regulation on Environmental Management Services (1 November 2022, No. 32000), listed facilities must use an in-house environmental management unit, a certified environmental officer or an authorised consultancy.
• Periodic measurements. Emission, wastewater and noise measurements at the intervals set in the permit, plus continuous emission monitoring where required.
• Waste records. A waste management plan, annual waste declarations in the Integrated Environmental Information System and electronic tracking of hazardous waste transport through the mobile waste tracking system (MoTAT).
• Zero waste. Waste segregation and zero waste management under the Zero Waste Regulation.
• Change management. Relocation, a change of activity or fuel, or a capacity increase of one third or more requires permit renewal. Other changes must be notified within 30 calendar days.
• EIA commitments. Everything promised in the EIA report or Project Introduction File remains enforceable for the life of the plant.

Waste processing facilities have extra conditions. A waste licence carries site-specific waste codes, capacity limits and a financial guarantee, and new waste codes can only be added once a year.

Licensing a waste recovery or recycling plant

Recycling plants follow the same GFB and permit route, but the licence part adds its own requirements. The application must describe each waste code the plant will accept, the process used for each code (recovery operation codes R1 to R13, or disposal codes D1 to D15), the storage areas, the capacity and the quality of the output product. Inspectors check that the installed equipment matches what is described, so a licence written around a planned second line will not cover a line that has not yet been built.

Most waste recovery projects also need an EIA screening review before the permit stage, and the March 2026 amendment to the EIA Regulation revised several waste recovery thresholds. Special waste streams, such as waste mineral oils, end-of-life tyres, WEEE and batteries, have their own regulations with technical criteria and producer responsibility systems that affect who may supply waste to you. We build those conditions into the process design so that the licence, the EIA commitments and the actual plant describe the same facility.

Inspections and enforcement

Provincial directorates carry out planned inspections according to a risk-based programme and unannounced inspections after complaints or incidents. Inspectors compare the plant against its permit annexes, its EIA commitments and its measurement reports. Administrative fines under Article 20 of the Environment Law No. 2872 are revalued every year, and operating a listed activity without a permit can lead to the activity being stopped until the permit is obtained.

The most common findings we see are expired measurement reports, unrecorded capacity increases, missing waste declarations and stacks that no longer match the permitted configuration. All of them are avoidable with a simple compliance calendar.

How we handle permits for foreign-owned plants

We prepare and file the GFB and permit applications in the e-permit system, coordinate accredited laboratories for measurements, and respond to the authority in Turkish. You receive an English permit matrix, an English summary of each authority letter and a compliance calendar that your group EHS team can follow from abroad.

Our background in recycling plant process consulting, particularly waste mineral oil, solvent, plastic and paper recovery, means we understand waste licence conditions from the operator's side. Our offices in İzmir, Ankara and Kocaeli are close to the main industrial zones of the Aegean and Marmara regions, so site visits do not need to be planned weeks in advance.

What we need from you

• EIA decision or the authority's opinion that no EIA is needed
• Zoning status, building licence and, where relevant, the OSB connection permit
• Process flow diagram, plant layout and stack list with heights and diameters
• Fuel types, thermal input and raw material consumption
• Wastewater flows and treatment design, and the expected waste codes with quantities
• Turkish company documents and an authorised signatory with an electronic signature

Cost and timeline drivers

The effort depends on the number of permit topics, whether the facility is in Annex 1 or Annex 2, whether a waste licence and an SYD certificate are needed, the number of stacks and discharge points to be measured, and how far the plant is from stable operation when the GFB is issued. Existing plants with gaps in measurement history or unpermitted changes take longer than new ones.

Related services

The permit relies on the EIA decision, so start with our environmental impact assessment in Turkey service if the project is not yet screened. Investors and lenders checking an existing plant should see environmental due diligence in Turkey. Plants using or importing hazardous chemicals will also need Turkish safety data sheets, and plants exporting steel, aluminium, cement or fertilisers to the EU should look at CBAM consulting.