Despite its posh upcycled art installation, a quick visit to Israel’s Hiria dump demonstrates the extent to which materials that could be recycled, and should be recycled, are instead buried. There are cages available in some neighborhoods where people can stash their plastic bags and bottles, and sometimes batteries, and Koala Recycling Solutions recently started an aluminum recycling program, but mostly, Israel’s recycling system needs serious help. That could change if the Knesset approves a new law that puts the onus of recycling on the manufacturers’ shoulder.The Environment Protection Ministry will require local and international manufacturers to ensure the packaging used for their products is collected and recycled. It does not matter whether the packaging is reused, burned for energy, or recycled. It only matters that it does not land in the dump.

If passed, the law will ensure that Israel no longer wastes nearly $300 million dollars worth of raw materials each year, according to the Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan.

“Instead of burying raw materials worth a billion shekels in the ground every year, the packaging will be collected from citizens’ homes and recycled. Implementing the law will add thousands of new jobs,” he told Haaretz.

Companies will be responsible for collecting and recycling paper, glass, plastic, and metal, but local citizens will have to step up to the plate as well. Even if the Environment Ministry provides the tools to sort and recycle waste, some kind of measures will be necessary to educate the public about the merits of recycling. Judging by Friday morning shopping excursions, where everyone and their grandmother troop around the souqs with armfuls of plastic bags, this will be no easy feat.

This law could also create a regulatory nightmare if local citizens don’t fulfill their end of the bargain, by sorting their waste into provided receptacles, and companies have to foot the bill for their apathy.

Still, it’s an important step, because manufacturers will be forced to become more innovative with their packaging. Perhaps biodegradable cartons will become more mainstream, or perhaps companies will use less.

To begin with, companies will have to account for 60% of the packaging they generate, and by 2020, the goal is to recycle 100% of all packaging so that literally nothing goes to waste. Failure to do so could cost nearly $700 per ton of waste.

A mighty impressive step in the right direction if it passes, and if everyone plays fair.

:: Haaretz

More on the Hadera dump and recycling in Israel:

Hiria: A Garbage Dump Turned Recycling Dream

Spend Summer Nights at Hiria, Central Israel’s Garbage Dump

Brigitte Cartier and Hiria Searching for Volunteer Upcycling Arts

image via kevingessner

The post Israel To Fine Manufacturers $700 Per Ton Of Non-Recycled Packaging appeared first on Green Prophet.

In some parts of the United Arab Emirates, attitudes towards the environment are moldy and overgrown with ignorance. The daily feasts during Ramadan produced extraordinary food waste, and artificial islands continue to grow. Not to mention Dubai, that glittering blight on the UAE’s environmental horizon. But elsewhere in the Emirates, leaders are attempting to catch up to the more advanced Western approach. Strict new rules prevent tainted herbs from reaching markets, and more recently, the rulers of Sharjah, an otherwise conservative emirate that strictly forbids alcohol, or men and women to mix, invested $41 million in a recycling facility.

Motivated by guilt

In 2006, Samer Kamal – who was born in Montreal and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in pharmacology and toxicology – got the idea to begin a recycling center in Sharjah after witnessing his mother toss her recyclables into a bin with non-recyclables.

“Having grown accustomed to recycling in Canada, he felt a wave of guilt,” writes Sonia Verma for The Globe and Mail.

That moment luckily coincided with His Highness Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi’s interest in doing something more constructive with waste than bury it in the desert. So his mother arranged a meeting between the Emir and Mr. Kamal.

Transforming rubbish

Subsequently, in 2007 the Sharjah municipality claimed a 50% stake in the business appropriately created and named Bee’ah, which means Environment, of which Mr. Kamal is the Managing Director. Two private investors – one British, and one from Sharjah – divvy the remaining 50% of the company’s shares.

Despite experiencing a few obstacles during the recession, Mr. Kamal has been extraordinarily successful at creating a voluntary recycling program among citizens who have very little experience with such matters.

“There are a few things that have been fantastic in the last little while. … Both the business community and the residential community have begun to understand that there’s a challenge we need to face and we need to face it as assertively as we can,” Mr. Kamal told the paper.

The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) where recyclables collected from 1,800 bins around Sharjah can process 3,200 tonnes a day, though the facility receives 13,000 tonnes by lunchtime.

Whirring conveyor belts

“Hundreds of workers, mainly from India and Pakistan, spend their days separating recyclables from garbage as it travels along whirring conveyor belts,” writes Ms. Veran.

The resulting post-consumer recylclables are then packaged and sold to local buyers. What can not be recycled is shipped off to the landfill. Bee’ah has even recently begun to purchase rubber from a tire factory, which is turned to dust and re-used for roads and children’s playgrounds.

“Bee’ah boasts $1.47 billion in assets and 600 employees, mostly waste sorters, as well as an international management team from Europe, North America and the Middle East,” according to Ms. Veran. The wages are competitive, and though the business has not yet produced a profit, Mr. Kamal explains that the Emir is less concerned with profit than with something more “complicated” than that.

:: Globe and Mail

More Business and Politics News from the Middle East:

Egypt’s Long Path to Nuclear Power

Blackouts And Black Clouds: What’s Wrong With Egypt’s Environmental Policies?

Israel’s Polluters Face New OECD Rules

The post Canadian Man Revolutionizes Sharjah, UAE With Recycling appeared first on Green Prophet.