Alongside this, there is no reliable trash collection system as a whole. There is an incredible amount of litter throughout the country, even in parks and natural open spaces. Most of this litter is plastics.
Israel developed very quickly. It is a fairly new country and made a strong push to industrialize quickly, like other Western countries. With this industrialization came the use of plastics. The use of plastics became part of daily life very quickly, but an effective system to take care of plastic waste was not developed at the same time. Slowly, some programs are being developed, but not quickly enough to make up for the incredible amount of plastic waste that has already been created and now sits on the sidewalks and in parks.
Awareness has increased about the problems associated with the excessive use of plastics and a lack of recycling and reuse programs. As part of my internship at the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, I have been working on a project to inform the Orthodox Jewish community about the problems of using too much plastic. Online resources have been created that provide information on where there are compost sites throughout Jerusalem and greater Israel, recycling centers and other places that will take old clothes for reuse. I am optimistic that progress will be made in the near future regarding recycling and reusing of waste and waste products, but right now the infrastructure does not exist. Do you have any ideas about how to create this important infrastructure here in Israel?
