A ministerial legislative committee on Sunday decided to expand the container deposit law to include a cash refund for 1.5 liter bottles, which could raise the number of bottles returned for recycling in Israel.

The committee hasn't decided on the amount it intends to give for returned 1.5 liter bottles, and said the Knesset would determine the sum at a later date. Committee members said the new law would include a limit on the number of bottles that a customer can return to a specific store.

The deposit law was initiated in 2001 and requires a refund of 25 agorot be given on all returned beverage containers between 100 ml and 1.3 liters.

	Advertisement

Since the law was put into effect it has raised ire within the ultra-Orthodox community because it did not include 1.5 liter containers. Leaders in the ultra-Orthodox community have argued that the law excludes customers from large families, who typically buy the larger, family-size bottles, and therefore cannot receive the 25 agorot refund.

During the committee meeting, Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said that since the deposit law was initiated, over 1.3 billion beverage containers have been returned for recycling. Ezra argued that the proposed changes to the beverage law have the potential to raise the level of recycling by over 500 million beverage containers annually, and to contribute a great deal to cleaning up litter in public areas in Israel.

Ezra promised that additional bottle collection machines would be installed in commercial centers across the country.

The deposit law is considered the root cause of a dramatic rise in recycling in Israel in recent years. At the beginning of the 90s, only 3 percent of trash in Israel was recycled, compared to 23 percent today. The law has also led to a significant drop in the amount of waste generated annually.

Since the inception of the law, the amount of waste created yearly by the average Israeli citizen dropped 10 percent from 620 kilograms in 2002 to 560 kilograms in 2005.

The deposit law has had its greatest impact on the Tel-Aviv area. Since 2002, the daily amount of trash generated by the average Tel-Aviv resident has declined from 3.27 kilograms, to 2.62 kilograms.