Last update - 00:00 01/02/2007
Greens say official recycling figures are vastly inflated
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
Far less consumer waste is recycled in Israel than the official figure of 23 percent of all household garbage, according to the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED). The nonprofit published its annual report Wednesday. The IUED claims that in practice, less than 10 percent of waste is recycled.
The report, which reviews a whole list of environmental problems, harshly criticizes the Environmental Protection Ministry's recycling policy. Solid waste expert Gilad Ostrovsky and IUED attorney Linor Sagi prepared the chapter on recycling, in which they claim that the local authorities and the ministry are not fulfilling the regulations of the Recycling Law, which require local authorities to recycle about 25 percent of the household waste generated under their jurisdictions.
IUED representatives examined reports by the local authorities regarding recycling, which are based on data from 2004. The figures indicate that only 160 of Israel's 255 local authorities bothered to report to the Environmental Protection Ministry. Of the local authorities that did report, more than half did not meet the annual waste recycling goal, which should have been 15 percent of waste.
Eighteen of the local authorities that reported admitted to conducting no recycling. In Jerusalem, only 4 percent of the waste was recycled; in Tel Aviv this figure was 7 percent.
Only one in four of the reporting local authorities ostensibly met the recycling targets, but according to the IUED, the quality and reliability of the reports is dubious, and in many cases the numbers have been padded to portray the authorities as meeting their recycling goals.
The report's authors offer a few examples of questionable recycling figures. Kiryat Shmona reported a recycling rate of 26 percent, with the main waste component being plastic, but did not specify what type of plastics, while the Yoav Regional Council reported a high recycling rate, with a large portion of the recycled waste defined as oil used for fattening animals.
The report's authors point out that the removal of used oil is handled by businesses and is not the local authority's responsibility. Such recycling, therefore, cannot be included under the definition of household waste. There were other instances in which industrial waste was included in the reports, thus inflating the scope of recycling.
The IUED is demanding that the Environmental Protection Ministry do more to enforce the recycling regulations and to impose sanctions, including fines, even for unreliable or deficient reporting. The organization likewise contends that the types of waste should be clearly defined in the regulations, to prevent the local authorities from slanting the recycling data.
"The recycling regulations, including the goals set by them, are an important basis for achievements in recycling waste and saving resources," states the report. "It was the environmental protection minister who initiated the formulation of these regulations, in order to shift the waste sector in Israel from burying to recycling."
"The ministry has not yet received the IUED's report," the ministry spokesman told Haaretz. "After we have received it and read it, we will issue a response."