As a former American living there full time, I have grown quite used to recycling my glass and plastic bottles, as well as paper and metal containers. We had separate bins for this and while it was a program you could opt-in or out of, many people I know chose to recycle their waste and purchase products made from recycled materials.

Later on when I moved to Israel full time, I was shocked that here, we only recycle plastic bottles and occasionally paper products. The amount of garbage and waste was appalling to me. I only later on learned that a group of American teenagers had come to visit Israel and petitioned heavily to have those containers I now see all over for plastic bottles to be put up. However we still have a long way to go as the garbage mountains and yes, I do mean mountains, are growing larger by the day.

The Israel Union for Environmental Protection (IUEP) is now lobbying a new bill in the Knesset to increase recycling efforts. The bill proposes that every major street in Israel will have a paper, plastic, glass and metal recycling bins which would effectively save up to 1 million tons of greenhouse gases that would not be emitted into the air yearly! A poll conducted by the IUEP found that over 63% of Israelis are in favor of this bill and would willingly participate in this effort.

Currently, 21.6% of Israel’s trash is packaging materials which accounts for 50% of the country’s total waste output. The current bill in place requires municipalities to recycle one-quarter of their trash, but most opt for the much cheaper but more harmful in the long run, way of burying waste underground.

This new bill would make recycling the responsibility of the manufacturers to fund the proper disposal of waste and also to station the recycling bins around the country in easily accessible locations.