Israel Cleans Up Its Act and Recycles Its Beach Waste

We are undeniably in the thick of beach season.  Deeply tanned French tourists with gold colored sandals and other stylish accessories line the beaches, the smell of sunscreen is in the air, and the plywood percussion of matkot (paddle ball) is the reigning summer symphony.

Unfortunately, all of this beachy goodness comes with a whole lot of trash.

You know the drill, you go to the beach and bring food, bottles of water, maybe some cigarettes…  And when you leave the beach, all the leftovers pretty much stay there.  We already know how bad incorrect disposal of cigarette butts is for the environment, but all those non-biodegradable plastic bottles aren’t great either.

Plastic recycling company, Collection for the Environment, finally took matters into its own hands.  This summer they distributed around 1000 plastic recycling collection containers along Israel’s shore line.  The project was partially funded by the large beverage corporations.  Tel Aviv, the summer capital of all things beachy, has around 50 of them. 

To further drive in their point, they even made the containers themselves out of recycled plastic – so beach goers realize the possibilities of recycled plastic.

So now there aren’t any excuses for seeing unsightly plastic bottles lining Israel’s beaches.  Now if there were only compost collection points so you could recycled your watermelon rinds?

Read more about recycling plastic bottles::

Israeli Recycled Plastic Bottle Suit Gives New Meaning to Euro-Trash

Biodegradable Picnics with Ecomum: On Bottles, Plates and Games

Say Goodbye to Bottles

Author: Karen Chernick

Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.

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