Two weeks before the Deposit Law for Large Plastic Bottles comes into effect, a report published by the Knesset's Center for Information and Research has found that there are only 180 bottle bank machines for automatically collecting the bottles deployed at supermarkets around Israel. 200 more such machines are on their way to the country. A survey by Pareto for the Ministry for Environmental Protection found that 2,500-3,000 such machines are required nationwide.
The deployment of such machinery is not a prerequisite for implementing the law but it will make it far easier for supermarkets and stores to cope when the law comes into effect on December 1.
The Knesset report found that there are likely to be few automatic bottle banks for large plastic bottles outside of the center of the country. Adam Teva V'Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense) has also warned that there are few automatic bottle banks in the periphery, even though 1,000 are required and a budget of NIS 100 million has been allocated for the matter.
Adam Teva V'Din has also warned that despite the current law, by which a deposit on small plastic drinks bottles is paid, consumers often find it unpleasant to return the bottles to supermarkets and grocery stores or are even refused repayment. The organization urges that the law is enforced more strictly and that all complaints are investigated swiftly.
The new Deposit Law comes into effect following the initiative one year ago by former Minister of Environmental Protection Gila Gamliel. Her ministry had found that the rate of small plastic bottles, on which there is a deposit, being returned for recycling was far higher than the rate of large plastic bottles, on which there is no deposit, and were meant to be discarded voluntarily into street-side cages designed for the large bottles.
The amount of the deposit for the large plastic drinks bottles has yet to be announced but it is expected to be NIS 0.30 - the same as for small bodies. Pareto forecast in its survey that 79% of large plastic bottles will be returned to stores for recycling, while 21% will be thrown away, mainly into green plastic bins for general garbage.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 16, 2021.
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