A free learning journey · Turkish · Threshold II (B1.2) — say what you mean in Turkish · Unit 9 — Our world

Time to recycle

13 stepsabout 10 minutesEnglish & Arabic

That plastic bottle you just threw in the regular trash? It's not gone. It's on a one-way trip to the ocean to become a turtle's problem forever.

Stop the bottle

The words — Time to recycle

Six words. One household about to be exposed for its crimes against the ocean.

geri dönüştürmek

Meaningto recycle

In a sentence

Nujoom şişeleri geri dönüştürmek için üç ay biriktirdi, sonra hepsini yanlış kutuya attı.

Nujoom saved up bottles to recycle for three months, then threw them all in the wrong bin.

plastik

Meaningplastic

In a sentence

Hilal'in evinde her şey plastik: tabaklar, bardaklar, hatta bir plastik muz.

In Hilal's house everything is plastic: plates, cups, even a plastic banana.

çöpe atmak

Meaningto throw in the trash

In a sentence

Sama plastik muzu çöpe attı ve Hilal üç gün ona küstü.

Sama threw the plastic banana in the trash, and Hilal was mad at him for three days.

yeniden kullanmak

Meaningto reuse

In a sentence

Zeeza dedi ki: "Onu çöpe atma, yeniden kullanabiliriz," ama kimse plastik muzu nasıl kullanacağını bilmiyordu.

Zeeza said, "Don't throw it away, we can reuse it," but nobody knew how to use a plastic banana.

israf

Meaningwaste

In a sentence

Nujoom her gün yeni bir plastik muz alıyor, bu tam bir israf.

Nujoom buys a new plastic banana every day — that's pure waste.

sonunda denize gidiyor

Meaningends up going to the sea

In a sentence

Hilal ağladı: "Plastikleri ayırmalıyız, yoksa hepsi sonunda denize gidiyor!"

Hilal cried, "We have to sort the plastics, otherwise it all ends up going to the sea!"

Watch out — Time to recycle

A Turkish sentence about plastic starts calm, like a nature documentary. Where does it end up?

Sonunda denize gidiyor.

'Sonunda denize gidiyor' = 'it eventually ends up in the sea' — the phrase Turkish uses for unrecycled plastic's final destination. Pair it with 'plastikleri ayırmalıyız' (we should separate the plastics) — that's the '-meli' obligation form you already know, just doing environmental duty.

The scene — Time to recycle

Hilal is visiting. He ate, and left a small plastic mountain on the kitchen counter.

Hilal yine geldi ve bak, her yer plastik!Hilal came again and look, plastic everywhere!
Ben hallederim! Hepsini çöpe atıyorum!I'll handle it! I'm throwing all of it in the trash!
Hayır.No.
Ben sadece su içtim, bu kadar plastik nereden çıktı?I only drank water, where did all this plastic come from?
Her ziyaretinde beş şişe içiyorsun Hilal.You drink five bottles every visit, Hilal.