A time bomb underground: Israel's waste crisis
Israel buries about 80% of its waste in the ground — almost double the average in OECD countries — and estimates suggest it will be only a few years before existing landfills are full. At the same time, billions of shekels collected through the "landfill levy" are sitting in the "Cleanliness Fund," and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman is clashing with the professional staff in her ministry over the establishment of a "Waste Authority." Professor Ofira Ayalon from the University of Haifa explains what is behind the failure and where we are headed if the direction does not change.
Listen to "The Headline" — the daily news podcast from ynet. This time: on the waste crisis in Israel and why it should worry us.
"About 40% of our trash is organic material: fruit peels and food scraps. This is the heart of the problem. Such waste causes fermentation and acidification of all the waste buried with it. This causes air pollution, methane is created, which is a greenhouse gas, it causes heavy metals to leak into our groundwater, and it also harms animals. Landfills in Israel do try to reduce environmental damage, but by nature, it is impossible to reduce it to zero, even if there is good infrastructure. Landfilling, like any other waste treatment solution, cannot reduce the damage to zero," explains Professor Ofira Ayalon from the University of Haifa.
"We already see today that we are in distress regarding landfill space, and this simply allows existing landfills to grow wider and higher. There is a serious fear that this situation will continue to exist, and landfills will simply continue to expand. Recently, we also hear that trash is being burned. This happens mainly in the Arab society. Trash is a mafia-related matter and it attracts criminal aspects. The enforcement capability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in this matter is poor. We will not reach a situation where we have nowhere to put our waste because they will find solutions for it, but not good solutions. We are producing more and more waste — much more than the population growth rate. We are a consumer society. There are many political and professional issues here. The Ministry of Environmental Protection does not consult enough with local authorities, with professional bodies, and with academia. The ministry acts as if it knows how to manage everything, but in practice, that is not the case."
If you missed it: you are invited to listen to another episode of ours, about the traffic jams in Gush Dan.
