{"id":268,"date":"2022-03-20T09:14:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alontal.brandale.co.il\/?p=268"},"modified":"2022-04-24T05:02:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T05:02:49","slug":"construction-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/?p=268&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Construction Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. Israel produces over 6.2 million tons of construction waste each year.\u00a0 Only 55% of the waste is recycled, even though in Europe the standard is 70% and in countries like Germany, 90% of the construction waste stream is recycled.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The result is a solid waste disaster: according to Israel State Comptroller 2021 report, 180,000 trucks dump construction waste illegally throughout the country, creating an aesthetic disaster, a visual nuisance and a safety hazard.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The same report counts a mere 260 fines issued each year for violations by these truck operators. That means that the chance of a criminal dumper actually getting caught and receiving a fine is roughly one in a thousand.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. These dynamics are characterized as a \u201cTragedy of the Commons\u201d, where individual operators make a calculated decision that imposing the cost of the dumping on the \u201ccommons\u201d is simply far less expensive than internalizing the costs and disposing or recycling the wastes according to the law.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has been remiss in its enforcement activities.\u00a0 Although it tried to pass two laws on the subject, neither managed to make much headway in the Knesset.\u00a0 Upon entering the Knesset, I submitted one of the bills with the intention of renewing this legislative effort.\u00a0 But the environmental ministry pulled its support claiming that its staff is writing an alternative statute. Strangely, it will only be available in a year!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Improving the legislative framework is important.\u00a0 But even without any new laws,\u00a0 the Ministry has important tools to address this problem: as of 2016, local planning committees were directed to stipulate the granting of any building permits with a formal agreement showing that arrangements had been made for the lawful removal of construction wastes.\u00a0 The problem is that in far too many towns, this requirement is simply not implemented.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The Ministry needs to dramatically increase the enforcement presence so that the operators of construction removal feel significant deterrence.\u00a0 Israel has only 27 full-time inspectors for all environmental violations \u2013 roughly the same number it had twenty years ago.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. The Ministry also needs to upgrade the sophistication of its enforcement work: effective monitoring of construction waste dumping via remote sensing or GPS tracking should make convictions relatively simple.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Ten years ago, the estimated cost of removing the massive amounts of construction waste littering open spaces was estimated to reach 5 billion shekels. Today the cost is most certainly higher. But it is time to begin a national cleanup. Fines for illegal dumping should be dramatically increased to help cover the costs.\u00a0 At the same time, tipping fees for disposing construction waste must be increased so that the polluter begins to pay.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Israel is facing a scarcity of building materials.\u00a0 Recycled construction waste should be a central component in the national strategy to address the impending shortages.\u00a0 An effective policy to address the construction waste crisis will not only prevent the mess of unsightly litter throughout the country\u2019s open spaces, but also provide raw materials for a sustainable future.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Israel produces over 6.2 million tons of construction waste each year.\u00a0 Only 55% of the waste is recycled, even though in Europe the standard is 70% and in countries like Germany, 90% of the construction waste stream is recycled. The result is a solid waste disaster: according to Israel State Comptroller 2021 report, 180,000 trucks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-agenda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}