Recycling in Israel Is Picking Up

By SIMONA KOGAN

Jerusalem resident Avi Hein, 25, takes one trip a week to haul his collection of big plastic bottles to the recycling bin down the street, in his neighborhood. He throws his newspapers in the receptacle next to the big bottles. He takes his smaller plastic bottles to the local store to collect the 25 agorot (six cents) deposit he receives for returning the bottles.

It’s not always convenient to make the trip, but for Hein, recycling is the first step in taking care of the environment in his country.

“At home and at work, I always recycle—even if it means lugging home all my empty bottles at the end of the work day. It can get annoying when you go out to eat or grab a soda on the street and there is no place to recycle your empty bottle, but even if bottles and newspapers have to be schlepped, I would recycle anyway.”

Hein is one of growing number of Israelis who have put recycling on their “to-do” list, recognizing its environmental value. Recycling is increasing at a fast pace in Israel. According to Yoav Goel, Recycling Coordinator for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, only 23 percent of waste in Israel is currently recycled—but that’s up from 3 percent in the last decade. Quite a jump.

While on the upswing, as a nationwide process, recycling still has a way to go. For now, plastic bottles can be recycled by throwing them into bins on streets, and, starting in 2001, small bottles can be returned to stores for a deposit. The decision to include bottles of 1.5 liters or more in the recycling process wasn’t made until February 2007. Prior to that date, the larger bottles had been destined for landfills.

“Recycling is a sustainable treatment and Israel is dealing with a sustainable development,” Goel says.

Newspapers can also be recycled, but white paper has yet to be added to the list. It’s collected more often in offices and ministries of schools and universities, Goel says. Cardboard is collected in large commercial centers and stores, but there are no bins for cardboard on the streets. Municipalities collect green waste, and old tires can be collected from garages and large companies such as transportation, flight companies, and the army.

The recent increase in recycling programs in Israel has been so impressive that the Minister of Environmental Protection, Gideon Ezra, believes that a cooperative effort by the Environment Ministry and local authorities could increase the rate to 35 percent by 2010—the level of recycling in the United States.

Even so, 25-year-old Miriam Hilton from Kibbutz Berot Yitzhak, located near Petach Tikva, considers waste production and littering a major problem in the country. “I think we need to reign in on littering,” she says. “I would love to see some type of re-education program informing audiences about the harmfulness of littering.”

In fact, waste production in Israel has decreased in the past five years, according to the Ministry’s Solid Waste Division. In 2005, .560 kilograms were produced, which is down 10 percent from the .620 kilograms generated in 2002.

In the last 15 years, the focus of the Environmental Ministry has been on closing illegal dumps and establishing new, legal, state-of-the-art landfill sites in each municipality, says Goel. The tax on landfills is also increasing. In an effort to spend money on recycling facilities instead of on landfills, landfills are being charged $10 per ton more for their waste, according to Goel.

“We are trying to create conditions so that local authorities will turn to recycling and not to landfills. The price will be more expensive for them, so they will think twice,” Goel says.

“We don’t have space for landfills in Israel. It’s a small country and most of the legal landfills are in the South, in the Negev. There is a large facility there, but it’s far away. We can’t send all our waste to the South. This is the motive that got the government to start thinking about other ways to take care of waste,” he admits.

Do more measures need to be taken to improve recycling in Israel? Hein, Hilton, and even the Environmental Ministry answer with a resounding “Yes.”

“I wish it was more convenient,” Hein says. “For example, there isn’t trash pickup in my apartment and bottles and newspapers have to be schlepped outside, often to a separate location from the trash.”

“I think Israelis are becoming more informed on the issue of recycling, but there isn’t enough funding for collection sites, extra public trash, or extra workers to make recycling a reality in Israel. The project needs to be deemed serious enough to warrant real attention,” Hilton adds.

However, Goel is optimistic about the future of recycling. “We must create the right conditions for local authorities to start recycling and then they will find solutions for people who live in their municipalities. We try not to get involved in what they should do, which is to treat all the waste.”

With recycling facilities springing up all over the land, it is only a matter of time before Israel completely develops into the environmentally sound, recycle-friendly country.