Haaretz
August 2, 2007
By Haaretz Editorial
The many visitors to the Kinneret this summer are in for a disappointment. Most of the lake's shores are still surrounded by fences and an admission fee is charged. If this was not enough, entering some of the beaches is impossible because of pollution caused by raw sewage flowing into the water.
The Daily Star
July 25, 2007
By John Ehab
Special to The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The non-governmental organization Bahr Loubnan urged the Environment Ministry on Tuesday to remove polluted sand accumulated along Lebanon's shores during efforts to clean up an oil spill cause by an Israeli attack in 2006. An Israeli air strike on the Jiyyeh power plant during last summer's war spilled over 15,000 tons of crude oil into the Mediterranean, polluting much of Lebanon's coast.
Continue reading "Environmental group presses ministry to clear coastline of polluted sand" »
The Jerusalem Post
Jul. 17, 2007
Ron Friedman
A series of "green" motions were passed in the Knesset on Tuesday, as part of a day dedicated to environmental causes.
In their attempt to make Israel a more environmentally-friendly country, "Green" lawmakers and activists decided to start from the top. The leaders of the Knesset Socio-Environmental caucus, together with environmental student organization "The Green Course," submitted a report to the Knesset providing practical proposals for making the country's governing body more environmentally conscientious.
Arab Environmental Monitor
July 14, 2007
Batir Wardham
In Arab countries with scarce water resources and shortage of money and technologies for desalination, the option of greywater reuse and treatment is gaining a lot of potential. Despite problems that appeared in small-scale applications of greywater resuse in households the technologies are getting better and cheaper. The main element will be for the local community itself to adopt the technologies even when the donors leave.
Continue reading "Greywater Treatment and Reuse in MENA: A Method that works" »
Jordan Times
Jul. 18, 2007
Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday announced plans to establish a treatment plant for medical and hazardous waste in the Zarqa area.
The plan was announced during a workshop to discuss the ministry's 2007-2009 strategic plan.
Continue reading "Gov't to establish waste treatment plant in Zarqa" »
The Jerusalem Post
Jul. 19, 2007
RORY KRESS,
The mayors of Palestinian Baka a-Sharkiya (East Baka) and Israeli Baka al-Gharbiya (West Baka)-Jat signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to protect Wadi Abu Nar, a stream that runs through both municipalities.
Continue reading "Exclusive: Palestinian, Israeli mayors battle pollution" »
MA'AN
July 19, 2007
JERUSALEM, 19 July 2007 (IRIN) - Two mayors - one Israeli and one Palestinian - signed a joint declaration on 19 July agreeing to improve cooperation between their towns in water and waste management as well as conservation.
Jordan Times
Jul. 12, 2007
Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Jordan Environment Society (JES) to implement a comprehensive awareness programme aimed at reducing the use of plastics and encouraging the segregation of waste materials.
Continue reading "New strategy warns of dangers plastics pose to environment" »
Haaretz
July 11, 2007
By Zafrir Rinat
Two years ago, the Elcon Recycling Center wastewater treatment plant in Haifa Bay received the approval of the Environmental Protection Ministry to transfer hypersaline waste (fluids that contain unusually high concentrations of salt) to treatment pools in an industrial zone in the Galilee region. The ministry later received data that indicated that Elcon's purification process had failed to rid these brine-like substances of dangerous pollutants. Transport of the hypersaline waste to the Galilee was halted. The ministry now maintains it is taking action to remove this environmental hazard.
Jordan Times
3 Jul 2007
The country’s 105 olive mills annually produce 200,000 cubic metres of olive vegetable water, which pollute the soil and water resources (Al Rai file photo)
By Mohammad Ghazal and Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN — The Environment Ministry will establish a pilot plant by the end of this year to treat the liquid residue of the olive-pressing process, as it pollutes the soil and water resources.
Continue reading "Pilot plant to treat olive vegetable water" »
The Daily Star
Friday, June 22, 2007
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
SIDON: Official negligence has led to unprecedented levels of pollution in the Siniq River a few kilometers outside Sidon, area residents said Thursday. Even from its banks, the riverbed of the shallow waterway is almost completely obscured by murky water. Discarded furniture, wood, tires and all kinds of garbage, including industrial waste, can be seen floating on the surface.
Daily Star
June 15, 2007
Daily Star staff
Environment Hotline
BEIRUT: Although it was intended to help shape a spacious agricultural venue in the Chouf region of Sibline, plastic waste from the capital's Normandy landfill has been dumped in several areas across Lebanon, raising fears among the Lebanese about the toxicity of the materials, said a report published in this month's edition of Environment & Development magazine.
The Jerusalem Post
Jun. 17, 2007
JPost.com Staff
As the Environmental Protection Ministry launched a new campaign on Sunday to clean up the country's beaches, a Jerusalem Post reader from Amsterdam wrote in he was disgusted by the dirty beaches in Tel Aviv.
Robert Heilbron, 61, said that while walking on Tel Aviv's Hilton Beach on his last day in the country - June 14 - he stood on a bent, dirty syringe, which had pierced the sole of his sandal.
Continue reading "Environment Ministry threatens to slap fines on beach polluters" »
Jordan Times
June 8, 2007
Hana Namrouqa
ZARQA -- The Jordan Biogas Company in Ruseifa is currently conducting negotiations with the government of Finland to sell biogas generated from the Ruseifa landfill, the company's director, Hatem Ababneh, said on Thursday.
"Selling the biogas to Finland is an outcome of Jordan signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol, which allow industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in emission-reducing projects in developing countries," Ababneh told reporters, during a tour of the company's headquarters yesterday organised by the Ministry of Environment.
Continue reading " Negotiations under way to sell biogas to Finland" »
Jordan Times
June 4, 2007
Aqaba’s diving sites contain some of the world’s most pristine coral reefs
By Dalya Dajani
AQABA — This city’s unique marine habitat is beginning to lose its appeal among several tourist diving groups, who cite serious coral reef damage as a result of littering and other issues compromising their safety.
Continue reading "Aqaba divers concerned about coral damage, safety" »
Ma'an News Service
June 5, 2007
Bethlehem - Ma'an - On the occasion of World Environment Day, celebrated every year on 5 June since 1972, when the United Nations declared World Day at the opening of the Stockholm conference on human environment, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) has issued a press release on the state of the Palestinian environment.
Population density
Continue reading "On World Environment Day, PCBS reveals the state of the Palestinian Environment" »
The Daily Star
June 01, 2007
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: Last summer's fuel-oil spill into the Mediterranean Sea is not the main cause behind the Lebanese coast's pollution, despite what many people think. In fact, the key factor contributing to the pollution of the sea around Lebanon has never changed: sewage, according to an article in this month's issue of Environment and Development magazine.
Continue reading "Sewage remains primary pollutant in Lebanese waters" »
The Daily Star
May 28, 2007
An israeli attack caused the disaster, but environmentalists say Lebanese inaction made it worse
By Dona Challita
Special to The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Several forms of pollutants have fouled the sea off Lebanon for decades, including industrial effluents, untreated sewage and runoff from coastal garbage dumps. As though this were not enough, an Israeli attack during the war last summer added another hazardous element to the mix when the destruction of the storage tanks at the jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut released an estimated 15,000 tons of fuel oil into the Mediterranean.
Continue reading "Critics flay official response to Jiyyeh spill" »
Al Jazeera English
March 1, 2007
By Nour Odeh in Gaza
Sewage runs through the streets of Gaza
The Gaza Strip is the most densely populated piece of land in the world but it has had little or no investment in infrastructure for years, and the situation has worsened since sanctions were imposed last year.
The Daily Star
February 24, 2007
By Maher Zeineddine
Daily Star correspondent
CHOUF: Chouf residents and officials staged a rally on Friday to protest waste shipments to the region from Beirut, vowing not to accommodate the unwanted garbage and to escalate their campaign until the transfers stop. "We refuse to see our region transformed into a waste dump," said Ktar Matta Mayor Mohammad Najib Hassan at a rally in Sibline, where garbage from the Normandy landfill in Beirut is being dumped.
Continue reading "Chouf residents protest waste shipments from Beirut" »
Daily Star
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Monday, February 12, 2007
SIDON: About 50 truckloads of garbage transported in the last three days from
the Normandy landfill in Beirut to the Southern port city of Sidon have been
dumped directly into the sea, according to a source close to the issue.
Speaking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, the source said three
contractors from Sidon had deposited the garbage in the sea between the Sidon
dump and the Siniq bridge south of town.
"An agreement was signed between the company charged with treating the Normandy
dump and three contractors from Sidon to transport garbage to Sidon for $140
per truckload," the source said. "Waste was unloaded in five places, with one
truck throwing its load by the coast, near the Siniq bridge."
On Sunday, Sidon's municipality erected sand barriers in the area in a bid to
block passages the trucks had used to entered the town.
Sidon Mayor Abdel-Rahman Bizri issued a statement Sunday calling on security and
military bodies to "monitor Sidon's entrances after strange waste was smuggled
into the town."
"Some parties were transporting garbage from Normandy to the Chouf region of
Sibline, but for some reasons which we do not know yet, garbage was transported
to Sidon instead," Bizri said.
According to Bizri, "Jihad Arab, a contractor charged with the transportation
process from the Normandy dump, agreed to carry waste out of Sidon at his own
expense to various other licensed places situated outside of the area."
"Environmental and health safety are as important as security," Bizri said.
Bizri called for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for
transporting and dumping the garbage. The perpatrators should also by fined, he
said, "to prevent the reoccurrence of such a problem where environmental
conditions are exploited for financial benefits."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=79447
By Zafrir Rinat
Last update - 02:12 22/01/2007
David Litvinoff, the head of the Tamar Regional Council, has lived
most of his life at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, near the Dead Sea. But he made
his first visit to neighboring Jordan only last week. His main reasons
for finally taking the trip were the houseflies that plague residents
on both sides of the Dead Sea, and the realization that the
ever-shrinking sea is also a common problem.
Litvinoff and a delegation of regional council heads from the area met
in the Jordanian city of Safi with officials of the Jordan Valley
Authority and district governors. He and the head of the Jordan River
district, Ghaleb al-Shamaila, signed a memorandum of understanding to
work together against the flies and to establish a border crossing for
merchandise and workers on the Dead Sea's southern shore. They also
pledged to work to establish a regional peace park south of the Dead
Sea and to bring public pressure to bear on the issue of the Dead
Sea's desiccation.
The visit to Jordan was organized by the joint Israeli, Jordanian and
Palestinian Friends of the Earth-Middle East (FoEME). "It is a rare
event in which the representatives of so many Jordanian bodies meet
with Israelis, as political pressure usually prevents such meetings,"
FoEME's Israeli director, Gidon Bromberg, said. He stated that the
shared nature of the issues on the local level had created the level
of trust needed to reach the understandings.
"We've tried everything against the flies," Litvinoff said. "We
brought in specialists and used every kind of pesticide. The flies
continue to come from the Jordanian side. Some months, you can't even
sit outside."
The Israeli delegation came face to face with the source of the
problem in the fields near Safi: a fertilizer that attracts the winged
pests. "People here are poor, and they don't have money to buy
suitable fertilizers," said Dr. Farouk Arslan, a Jordanian ecologist
accompanying the group.
"This fertilizer gets wet and attracts the female flies, and that's
how the next generation develops," explained Shlomo Abadi, a pesticide
expert advising both sides.
The participants resolved to conduct a study on various methods of
decreasing the legions of flies. Bromberg and his Jordanian
counterpart, Munqeth Mehyar, met last week in Amman with the U.S.
ambassador to seek his help in establishing a compost facility that
will not attract flies.
The Jordanian side of the Dead Sea is in many respects a mirror image
of the Israeli side, complete with potash works and their evaporation
pools and a large number of hotels. The outstanding difference is that
the population on the Jordanian side is much larger, and poorer, than
on the Israeli side.
The Jordanians led their Israeli guests through a banana plantation in
which a huge sinkhole had opened, similar to the hundreds of such
holes on the Israeli side. The holes, which open without warning, are
created due to the drop in the level of the Dead Sea, which allows
fresh water to penetrate through salt layers beneath the surface,
dissolving them and causing the surface to collapse.
Ahmed Bukhri, a Jor dan Valley Authority engineer, said that there are
about 50 sinkholes in Jordanian fields. "We tried to block some of
them, but they reappear," he noted. As opposed to Kibbutz Ein Gedi,
which has stopped cultivation in the fields where the sinkholes
appeared, the Jordanian farmers appear to have no choice and continue
to work their fields, although there are sinkholes all around.
The shrinkage of the Dead Sea requires intervention at a higher level
than mayors on both sides, but the mayors are trying to raise
international awareness of the importance of preserving the area. At
their meeting, both sides agreed to continue their efforts to persuade
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) to declare the Dead Sea basin a World Heritage Site.
Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Date: 12 Jan 2007
USAID funds a waste removal project in Tal El Sultan
Tal El Sultan, Gaza Strip - The United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) is assisting in the removal of a
hazardous solid waste dump in Tal El Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.
Through this $25,000 emergency assistance program, USAID is
responding to a serious health threat to the residents of Tal El
Sultan. The cleanup, which started on December 19, will improve the
environment and quality of life for 30,000 people.
The Tal El Sultan waste removal project is part of USAID's $28.2
million emergency assistance program, Rafeed. This program enables
USAID to respond promptly to the immediate humanitarian and emergency
needs of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza.
Since 1993, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have received more
than $1.7 billion in U.S. economic assistance via USAID projects to
combat poverty, improve health and education, create jobs and promote
good governance.
Jordan Times
By Hana Namroqa
AMMAN — A new “manifest” system designed to limit random dumping of wastewater
into the Zarqa River, will help address part of the area’s environmental
problems, Minister of Environment Khalid Irani said this week.
“By registering the source of the wastewater and where it is dumped, the
Environment Ministry will have better control over sewage tankers and
consequently limit the haphazard clearance of waste into the river and the
surrounding area,” the minister said during an inspection tour of the river on
Wednesday.
The follow-up tour was organised to check on the river’s main sources of
pollution and take necessary measures accordingly, Environment Ministry
Spokesperson Isa Shboul told The Jordan Times.
Earlier this month, the ministry prepared an integrated emergency plan to
address the pollution problem, which identified the river's main sources of
contamination as wastewater leakage, the Ain Ghazal sewage tanker facility,
nearby factories, car wash stations, flooding manholes and sewer systems, and
the Greater Amman Municipality slaughterhouse.
The plan includes conducting maintenance work on drainage systems in Zarqa and
Amman to prevent rainwater from entering the sewage system, establishing a 21km
sewage pipeline from the west Zarqa pumping station to the Khirbet Al Samra
station between Zarqa and Mafraq governorates, establishing a new
slaughterhouse and studying the relocation of the stone quarries to a new
industrial site.
“The long-term plan will continue for up to 12 years. Solving the river’s
environmental problems requires time, as the roots of the problem go back
decades,” Irani said.
During the tour, the minister checked on eight sources of pollution along the
river. A scrap yard was closed down permanently, a quarry and a cattle farm
will be relocated to another site, while a car wash facility was given two
months to rectify the violations.
Mohammad Shishani, a resident of the Sukhneh area in Zarqa, complained about the
stench from the river and the garbage strewn along its banks.
“Authorities are blaming area residents for polluting the river by connecting
their sewage system to the river, but everyday we see sewage tankers
discharging waste into the water,” Shishani told The Jordan Times.
According to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, 10 per cent of wastewater in
the river is a direct result of illegal connections.
The ministry said it dealt with 167 violations, where citizens connected their
sewage networks to the rainwater drainage system linked to the river.
The emergency plan also seeks to protect the unpolluted parts of the river,
Irani said.
Although some sections of the river are not contaminated, the water is not
potable and can only be used for agricultural purposes, Water Authority
Director in Zarqa Jabr Hmoud told The Jordan Times.
By Fadi Eyadat
Haaretz- 10:36 25/01/2007
Two garbage containers stand in front of MK Ami Ayalon's house at
Moshav Kerem Maharal - one for general and the other for organic
garbage. The Ayalons are among the community's 161 residents who
recycle their organic garbage for compost production.
The trash cans were provided by Ayalon's former navy subordinate and
neighbor, Amiad Lapidot, who initiated the Kerem Compost project.
Lapidot, 38, founded the Eretz Carmel non-government organization
(NGO) in July to process organic garbage at Kerem Maharal and turn it
into compost, or plant fertilizer. The NGO won this year's Ford
Foundation first prize for environment preservation.
Moshav residents separate organic garbage - food leftovers, fruit and
vegetable peels, tea bags, coffee and matches - from the rest of the
garbage. Lapidot, the NGO's director, collects the organic garbage on
his three-dunam farm. "We bring eight tons of garbage here a month.
There are no flies or stink here, although hundreds of tons of garbage
have passed this site," he says.
This is because of the natural decomposition process that turns the
garbage into compost. The organic garbage must be put into the pile
with grass clippings, hay, leaves, newspapers, sawdust and weeds.
Microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), earthworms and insects work in
the compost pile to break down the materials into compost. The
temperature rises to 60-70 degrees Celsius, sterilizing
disease-causing bacteria.
After a month and a half, special worms of the Eisenia Fetida species
are introduced into the pile.
"The worms eat the organic materials and leftovers, break them down in
their bodies, and their secretions are the best fertilizer," Lapidot
says.
After the pile has decomposed for six months, the parts that have not
broken down are taken out, leaving plant compost. "This could be done
anywhere in the country or city. It doesn't stink, and doesn't bother
anyone," he says.
When organic garbage is not separated from plastic bags and other
garbage, it decomposes without oxygen, a process that emits methane
gas and contributes to global warming and "climate imbalance," Lapidot
says. "Without recycling, we are enhancing the greenhouse effect."
Almost 40 percent of Israel's household garbage consists of organic
materials that can be recycled into fertilizer. "We create an organic
circle that could go on forever," Lapidot continues. "The food I eat
goes to the compost pile, with which I fertilize the tree that
provides my food. This food goes to the compost heap and so on," he
says.
The garbage recycling in Kerem Maharal prevents the emission of
500,000 cubic meters of "greenhouse" gases into the atmosphere,
Lapidot says.
Lapidot built his house with earth bricks and straw, and uses dew for
cleaning and irrigation. Now he is thinking of producing methane gas
from his home's sewage for heating. In the summer, he cools his house
with a pipe stuck a meter deep in the ground, where the temperature is
16 degrees Celsius. Thus he saves water and energy. "My motto is to
live without infringing on the future generations' ability to
survive," he says.
Globalization, population growth and consumption have increased
environmental damage, he says. Israeli culture has "mutated." "It's
built into our society, we are raised to compete, to consume
endlessly, regardless of the laws moving the earth. There are laws,
and we've decided to ignore them. We must understand that we live by
the same laws that move and manage the planet," Lapidot says.
He is dedicated to creating a model to balance out modern
globalization and consumption, and preserve an environment "rich with
nature's free services."
"We must create a situation in which everything we do enriches the
environment. A tree, for example, develops and grows, yet it
contributes to cleaning the air, and produces fruit."
Lapidot is operating this model by recycling organic garbage, living
in his his earth-brick and straw home, and using dew. "I am the
environment," he says.
"As educators, we must teach others about nature's laws so that future
generations are able to survive," he says.
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
SIDON: The mayor of Sidon, Abdel-Rahman Bizri, has vowed that the Southern port
city's notorious and perennial waste-treatment crisis "will be resolved soon."
Bizri said in a statement issued Monday that efforts to remove the massive dump
were now under way thanks to a donation from Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.
The $5 million donation was originally made in 2004 by the Alwaleed bin Talal
Humanitarian Foundation but had been withheld due to disagreements between the
foundation and the municipality of Sidon over conditions to be met by the
municipality before it could receive the promised funds.
The statement from Bizri said the municipality had fulfilled the foundation's
conditions by acquiring necessary licenses and conducting an
environmental-impact assessment on a plan for the dump's removal. "The
municipality worked in cooperation with South for Construction [a major
contracting firm] to set up a mechanism that ensures the partial use of the
dump without hampering its elimination process," Bizri said.
"We ensure our Sidon neighbors that the dump treatment will not have any
environmental repercussions on their regions," Bizri said. "On the contrary, we
will work simultaneously on establishing a modern waste-treatment plant."
However, environmental activists told The Daily Star the announcement was an
"exaggeration" and that efforts being carried out were aimed at repairing
previous damage caused by the municipality's negligence, not treatment or
removal of the waste heap.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
An environmental activist at the dump said the first phase of the removal
process was to reduce the dump to its original size. "Work is being done to
reduce the trash heap to its initial size, since the dump has grown by more
than 40 percent and now covers land that had originally been set aside for the
waste-treatment plant," the activist told The Daily Star.
"Bulldozers working around the dump are doing nothing but repairing what has
been spoiled by the municipality. Several dumps have resulted from the main
one," said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We are
monitoring the treatment process and awaiting the results."
According to the activist, the reclamation of land for a waste-treatment plant
would take at least another month.
The Sidon dump has been an ongoing crisis for more than 35 years. Over the
decades it has repeatedly caught fire, and in 2005 and 2006 it partially
collapsed into the Mediterranean, sending waste as far as Greece.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78652
Thu, 4 Jan 2007 06:27:20 -0500
Haaretz
By Zvi Zrahiya
The Knesset Economics Committee yesterday reduced the minimum 2006 recycling
threshold of 1.5 liter bottles for ELA (the Recycling Corporation) from 85
percent to 65 percent. The committee thus accepted the claim that ELA was
experiencing difficulties meeting the legal target set by the Environment
Ministry and allowed the corporation to avoid a NIS 50 million fine set by law.
Committee chair Moshe Kahalon of Likud expressed bitterness ELA didn't show up
to confirm claims that the demands of the law were putting the company in
danger of collapse. Kahalon abstained, but both Shas MKs, Amnon Cohen and
Yitzhak Vaknin, voted in favor to carry the day.
Gilad Ostrovsky of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) said
yesterday the target was set in order to expand collection points, based on
extensive research conducted in Israel and abroad, and not on demands by ELA.
The IUED contends that were the ministry to collect the fine from ELA each
year, the corporation would make more of an effort to meet the 85 percent
target. If the fines were to reach a cumulative NIS 200 million, it would be
possible to purchase automated machines for recycling bottles and containers
and returning bottle deposits, the environmental advocate agency added.
The Environment Ministry commented that forcing ELA to pay the fine would cause
it to collapse.
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Thursday, January 11, 2007
NABATIEH: The head of the Confederation of Municipalities Union in Shqif on
Wednesday warned residents of villages in the Nabatieh area against piling
their garbage in the street following the closure of the Arnoun dump. The dump,
closed at the end of 2006, was notorious for receiving 100 tons of waste a day.
Serious environmental concerns had been raised due to the dump being
precariously perched atop a hill next to the Khardali River.
"We closed the dump because it is harmful [to the environment] ... I warned
mayors of 28 villages and towns two months ago of its dangers and asked them
not to throw garbage there by the end of 2006," Samih Halal told The Daily
Star.
Halal urged the government in Beirut to find alternative means of disposal for
the region's waste.
"The state should find a location where Shqif's municipalities could bury their
waste," he said. "Otherwise it should set up a waste-separation plant."
"The most important point today is to deal with the current situation after the
dump was closed," he added. "Piles of waste have started to appear in Nabatieh
and the surrounding areas due to a lack of dumps."
Acting Arnoun Mayor Rafik Hamdan said the decision to close the area dump was
made after repeated charges of negligence were leveled against the disposal
company responsible for waste collection in the area.
"The dump caught fire many times and the company was totally careless," Hamdan
said.
Environmental studies recently conducted in Arnoun said the location of the dump
was "inappropriate," he added.
"The dump is close to the Khardali River, which made the municipality of Arnoun
file a lawsuit against the [waste disposal] company," the acting mayor said.
"We have had enough of bearing the trash of around 30 villages for the past
four years."
Environmental Issue Overrides Outdated IDF Decision FOEME
2006-12-31
Israeli military reverses previous decision against a solid waste facility in
Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank
Tel Aviv, 31st December 2006
In response to pressure from environmental groups, the Israeli military has
approved the establishment of a landfill to be built on land previously
restricted to Palestinian development.
The new landfill site will be constructed near the village of Dir Dibwan, east
of Ramallah in "Area C," land under full Israeli military control.
The site will replace two antiquated dump sites in Al-Bireh and Ramallah -- both
of which lack basic environmental infrastructure, resulting in pollution of the
Mountain Aquifer's groundwater, as well as air pollution.
"The decision is a victory for the citizens of Ramallah, who have long been
forced to live with the stench, public health hazards and polluted air
generated from the atrocious state of the cities dumps," said Nader Khateeb
Director of FoEME's office in Bethlehem.
Responding to calls by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), support for the
site's approval was secured by Mr. Hagai Alon, advisor to Defense Minister
Peretz.
The former objection to the site was justified by the military due to plans to
construct an eastern separation barrier, which would have separated the
proposed waste disposal site from Ramallah and the adjacent village of Dir
Dibwan.
"Despite the fact that the barrier plan was abandoned by the government as early
as 2004, Israeli military objections to the site remained," said Zach Tagar,
Deputy Director at FoEME's office in Tel Aviv. "Reversal of the decision is a
hopeful sign of changes in the New Year. Moreover, the decision facilitates the
advancement of a 14 million Euro German investment in protecting shared ground
water resources by providing a solution to waste disposal for over 350,000
people."
Approximately sixty million cubic meters of sewage and solid waste pollution
seep into the Mountain Aquifer every year, threatening the fresh water supply
for Israelis and Palestinians, both of whom are dependant on the fresh
groundwater resources of the Mountain Aquifer.
For more information or to join a site tour, please contact Zach Tagar at: 03
5605383 (ext. 7) or 057 7492201.
For background information on sewage and solid waste pollution please see the
FoEME publication Seeping Time Bomb at: http://www.foeme.org.
Jordan Times
By Stephanie Berrong
AMMAN — An NGO that focuses on educating people about the environment wants to
help Jordanians come clean.
The Friends of the Environment society (FoE), in partnership with the Greater
Amman Municipality, the Ministry of Environment, the World Conservation Union
and the Swiss embassy, on Wednesday announced the launch of a national contest
to encourage recycling.
The “Smart Use of Recyclable Solid Waste” competition asks participants to
create useful objects from waste material like paper, plastic and cans.
Submissions should be easy to make from readily available trash. They should be
practical and able to be reproduced by an environment-friendly process.
“We need to make more people aware of the concept of recycling to reduce waste,”
said Sanaa Al Abbadi, the Environment Ministry outreach director.
FoE President Ramzi Kawar said some examples of the types of projects he hopes
to see are plastic bags woven into waste paper baskets or old window shutters
used to build public benches.
Submissions will be divided into three categories: Students aged between 13 and
18, professional designers and people with special needs. Participants can work
individually or in a group.
First, second and third place winners will receive cash and other prizes. The
group will also try to match the winning projects with manufacturers, Kawar
said, while winners will keep the rights to their creations.
Swiss Ambassador Paul Widmer presented a cheque for JD2,500 at the announcement
yesterday. The Swiss embassy has pledged JD10,000 to promote the recycling
contest.
Other partners have provided help planning the contest, donated facilities and
will judge the entries.
Raouf Dabbas, adviser to the environment minister, said working with NGOs is
something the ministry would like to do more of. One of its goals, he said, is
to increase awareness and education on the environment.
“And this is a very good way to put these words into action,” Dabbas added.
The contest is an extension of an initiative funded by the Canada Fund for Local
Initiatives in 2004, which created the cartoon character Abu Tadweer, the father
of recycling.
“The idea,” Kawar said, “is to maintain awareness in a fun way. We are trying
to make him as loveable a character as possible.”
Abbadi said she thinks recycling will catch on with Jordanians.
“If the Greater Amman Municipality is ready to collect the waste separately, the
people will be aware of it,” she said. “It’s possible. Why not?”
The deadline for submitting a project is January 18, 2007.
Environment minister hopes initiative encourages rise in number of bottles
recycled
YNET
Amir Ben David
Published: 09.12.06, 09:40
A revolution in the recycling field is occurring. Soon, gas stations will have
automated machines for collecting bottles to be recycled. The machines will
provide money for each bottle collected.
Environment Minister Gideon Ezra harnessed gas companies into this initiative,
and estimates that he will be able to expand the current Knesset Deposit Law –
which states that each recycled bottle will be reimbursed – to include 1.5
liter bottles.
So far, the law only applies to smaller bottles, mainly because of objections
from oltra-Orthodox parties.
The Deposit Law was meant to encourage soft drink consumers to return bottles in
exchange for the 25 agorot (roughly 6 cents) paid as a deposit at the time of
purchase, so that they might be recycled.
Each year, billions of bottles, big and small, as well as cans and other drink
containers are used. Only 60 percent of all debited bottles are returned to be
recycled.
Estimates show that a significant amount of bottle pickups are made by criminal
organizations. Over the years, it has become clear that one of the main
problems is the lack of collection points, and marketing companies unwilling to
participate in the collection.
From: Stuart Schoenfeld
Jerusalem Post
Sep. 27, 2006 22:38 | Updated Sep. 27, 2006 22:47
Swanky Savyon is country's top waste producer, study shows
By NOAM PRIMAK
Savyon may have a reputation for having some of the fanciest homes in the
nation, but the upscale community also leads the country in a less desirable
area: its residents produce the most waste per person of any community in
Israel.
According to Enviroment Ministry data, the average Israeli produces more than
one and a half kilograms of waste every day, but Savyon residents produce
almost triple that much, at 4.47 kg. Following Savyon in producing the most
waste were Eilat (3.45); Ramat Efal (2.98); Tel Aviv (2.62) and Tiberias
(2.62). Jerusalem produces 1.26 kg. per person.
According to the ministry's annual report, Israelis produced some 5.7 million
tons of waste in 2005 - an average of 560 kg. per person per year, or 1.53 kg.
of garbage per day. The figures include industrial waste.
Plastics make up about 35% by volume of the garbage disposed of in Israel, while
paper products and cardboard account for about 29% (1995 figures). Organic waste
makes up 15% by volume, but 38% by weight.
In 1993, the government ordered the closing of most of the country's smaller
garbage dumps and the channeling of most solid waste to authorized disposal
sites. Hundreds of dumps were closed down, resulting in a shortage of available
disposal space.
Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said the percentage of waste being collected
for recycling has been growing in recent years. The rate of recycling has gone
up from just three percent of total waste collected in the early 1990s to 23%
in 2005.
Israel lags several years behind Europe and the United States in recycling. Ezra
estimated that a joint effort by the Environment Ministry and local authorities
could increase the rate of recycling to 35% - the current level in the US - by
2010.
Currently, local authorities are required to collect at least 15% of waste for
recycling.
Ezra said that recycling could be increased by levying a garbage disposal tax
and by encouraging the development of new recycling technologies.
Israel employs a combined plan known as Integrated Solid Waste Management that
aims to make waste disposal more efficient. The plan combines traditional
burial of solid waste in dump sites with efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle
waste materials.
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