Is the Israel Land Authority closing landfills and thus driving the price up?
That's what municipal officials in the local authorities claim, who criticize the Israel Lands Authority harshly.
According to them, RMI is closing more and more garbage disposal complexes throughout the country but does not promote waste recycling complexes despite its promises. The result, they explain, is a 25% increase in prices - a payment that is ultimately passed on to the public.
"The garbage disposal situation is at a crossroads, and who is paying for it? The Israeli public," claims a city official, not to be attributed, in a conversation with Israel Hayom.
According to them, "on the one hand, the State of Israel is closing more and more landfills throughout the country, and on the other hand, it does not promote environmental recycling complexes to separate garbage and waste."
The source also adds that "concurrently with the closing of the landfills, the Israel Lands Authority recently raised the prices of land for landfills and caused the landfill companies to raise the prices to the municipalities, and thus the payment is passed on to the public. The reality that has arisen is such that the municipalities pay more money for the removal of garbage and it also does not contribute to strengthening the quality of the environment and air pollution ".
Waste landfill site.
CPA Aryeh Bardugo: "It cannot be that the state is closing landfills and actually creating a price cartel", photo: Dodo Greenspan
CPA Aryeh Bardugo, chairman of the union of treasurers in local authorities and treasurer of the Beit Shemesh municipality, cites his city as an example in this context.
According to him, "Today, a Beit Shemesh municipality garbage truck travels all the way to Dimona to bury the garbage it has collected, waits in line for three hours at the entrance to the compound and only then empties the garbage. This reality creates a lack of availability of garbage removal trucks for the residents because each truck is only sufficient to collect garbage once Once, instead of three times a day."
According to CPA Bardugo, the state is requested to sort out the issue. "We really want to promote garbage separation and promotion of recycling sites, but at the moment this matter is stuck, it cannot be that the state closes landfills and essentially creates a price cartel between a small number of players in the market and does not promote recycling complexes at the same time." He further notes that "the Israel Lands Authority raised the cost of the land to the owners of the landfills - so in response they increased the price by NIS 25 per ton. So it turns out that we both pay more money for landfilling the garbage and also pay an additional and unnecessary amount for transporting it to places very far."
Bardugo concludes and says: "There are solutions, we just need to promote them at the same time, and not leave us with nothing. Either landfills or recycling, you decide."
Rami: "The claims are not clear;
We are working to create new reserves"
In response to CPA Bardugo's statements, RMI told "Israel Hayom" that, "First of all, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is the party entrusted with the issue of handling waste in its various aspects, while the Israel Land Authority is responsible for allocating the land for this activity. The claim about closing landfills is not As a general rule, RMI works in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection to create new reserves, budgets planning funding for finding alternatives to waste sites in accordance with the guidelines of the planning director, and all with an understanding of the importance of the issue and the need to ensure landfill activity in response to the needs of the economy.
"In the past year, Rami has been working on the marketing of new landfills such as Talia in the north and Galma in the Haifa region, increasing the capacity of existing landfills such as Harubit in the Mate Yehuda region and increasing existing landfills such as the Afaa landfill in the southern region.
"Also, the change in the payment method decided upon by the Authority (with different and lower amounts than what was detailed in the article) is intended to make it easier for landfill owners since it does not require them to pay a high amount in advance, but rather allows a monthly payment according to the actual rate of landfilling and its purpose is an efficient allocation of the land and an incentive for waste treatment according to the policy of the Ministry of Defense the environment".
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