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Ministry of Environmental Protection Approves Transfer of 39 Million Shekels to 129 Local Authorities for Waste Recycling and Recovery Infrastructure

The Ministry of Environmental Protection's financial support committee deliberated on 137 requests for financial support from 129 local authorities throughout Israel in 2008. Some 39 million shekels from the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund (landfill levy) will be granted to these local authorities for the establishment of recycling and recovery infrastructures

This financial aid package for the purchase of recycling and recovery infrastructures completes the first stage of a ministerial plan to reduce the quantity of waste designated for landfilling and promote recycling in its stead. Financial support will continue in 2009 and will be complemented by the provision of support for waste treatment facilities which will significantly reduce the quantity of landfilled waste and increase the recycling and recovery rate in Israel.

According to Avri Lachman, Acting Director of the Solid Waste Division in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, "the financial support is earmarked to assure that the local authority will use the funds for specifically defined environmental needs and will reduce the quantity of waste in its jurisdiction."

Solid Waste Facts and Figures

Until the 1990s, hundreds of small garbage dumps, which were operated by local authorities, were strewn throughout Israel. They were responsible for nuisances and hardships to residents and hazards to the environment. Concentrated efforts by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of the Interior led to the closure of these dumps and their replacement by a number of central landfills, which receive waste from local authorities throughout Israel. These landfills comply with strict environmental standards and are closely supervised.

Today, most of Israel's waste (nearly 80%) is still landfilled. Although landfilling as a waste treatment method consumes the most land and is responsible for high costs to the state, its price in Israel was traditionally very low, both in terms of what is accepted worldwide and relative to other waste treatment methods. The low price to the user did not reflect the true costs of landfilling, including the cost of land, air pollution, pollution-related disease, risks to groundwater, etc.

Israel's landfill levy provides a partial solution to this distortion and is designated to reflect the true price of landfilling and allow for fair competition with advanced treatment methods - recycling and energy recovery from waste.

According to Amendment No. 9 to the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law, 2007, the landfill levies collected within the framework of the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund will be managed in a separate and dedicated account which will be used for the development, establishment, greater efficiency and promotion of alternative means to landfilling which have a lesser impact on the environment. Thus, the funds collected from the landfill levy are returned to local authorities for the purpose of establishing recycling and recovery infrastructures.

More Links:

• Laws and Regulations: Solid Waste and Cleanliness
• Solid Waste
• Recycling

Files for download:

Distribution of Financial Assistance to Local Authorities from the Landfill Levy ? 2008 (in Hebrew) (162K)