A wastewater treatment plant in Israel rolls out the brown carpet for holiday tourists
We’ve seen the most foul waste treatment plants come out smelling like roses after reclamation programs, and energy generated from human waste is no longer surprising to anyone who hears about it, but we never really thought that our most refined instincts (art) could rub shoulders with one of our most base (pooping.)
Apparently we didn’t think this through carefully enough. The Dan Region Waste Treatment facility in central Israel is rolling out their brown carpet for another year to host an art exhibition during the Passover holiday. The idea is to tease out the ways in which design can be used to address the numerous environmental concerns facing the country, including waste treatment and water shortages.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says it’s possible to find all kinds of “bizarre” items on display, including a children’s book on sewage, a bathroom magazine made from sewage paper, and even an emergency family water-treatment device. Eco-tours and talks led by The Council for a Beautiful Israel are also on offer.
The curator of this year’s “Bed Pan,” Galia Yahav has previously overseen”Redemption from the Sewers” and “Lab Report,” all of which have featured some of the country’s most talented artists.
Haaretz drops a few names, such as Anat Betzer, Shahar Freddy Kislev and Amit Levinger and describes how their work is featured everywhere from the sewage plant’s rooftop to its interior classrooms. This year, design students from all of the top schools, including Bezalel and Skenkar, will showcase their work, encouraging green approaches to social-design.
Visitors will be able to try their hand at making jewelry from plumbing parts (heavily sterilized, one would think), or they can create their own little garden using recycled water. Whatever the case may be, for people who are not immersed in the enormous leaps that Israeli designers and scientists have taken, at least when it comes to waste, are in for a big surprise!
:: Haaretz
More on Poop and Design in Israel:
5 Brilliant Projects That Turn Poop to Power
What Poo Paper Looks Like
Paper Made From Sewage Rolls off Israeli Shelves
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
The Dan Region Waste Treatment facility is the biggest polluter in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The fact that they present themselves as ecological is a fraud and they use the leading design schools as “Green Wash” without telling them the truth.
This facility says that it turns the sludge – the drained sewage – into fertilizer, however this is not true. They plan to do so, but keep postponing with various excuses. Instead, they spill over 5 million c”m of Sludge – the drained sewage – into the sea, killing thousands of kilometers in the sea and creating a devastating pollution that would take many years to clean.