It is estimated that some 50,000 tons of waste tires (6.5 million passenger tire equivalent) are produced in Israel annually. Until recently, Israel was hard pressed to provide a solution to its ever-growing quantities of scrap tires. Waste tires found their ways to roadsides, riverbeds and landfills and were associated with pest proliferation, uncontrolled fires and landscape blight. Yet change may be on the way. The Ministry of the Environment has placed waste tire treatment high on its priority list for solid waste management.
Policy Principles
Ministerial policy on waste tires is based on the following:
- Enforcement of existing laws and regulations including the Business Licensing Law and the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law;
- Advancement of specific legislation on waste tire treatment and recycling which will impose responsibility on producers and importers, establish targets for waste tire treatment and provide solutions to past nuisances;
- Cooperation with relevant bodies on potential solutions (e.g., tire importers, vehicle importers and the Association of Garages).
On the Road to Implementation
In the summer of 2003, a tire shredder that can handle the entire amount of tires generated annually and 2 tire cutters were imported into Israel, and a first site for the shredding, compression and monofilling of compressed tires began operating. At the same time, a draft bill on waste tire recycling was discussed in the Knesset (Israel Parliament). In addition, preparations were made for a six-month experiment on the use of tires as alternative fuel (TDF) in cement plants in Israel. A public committee will oversee the anticipated experiment which aims to examine the impact of tire-derived fuel on the environment.
These and other developments are expected to help prevent the environmental and waste hazards associated with waste tire piles, on the one hand, and to promote the reuse, recycling and energy recovery of waste tires, on the other hand.
Tires on roadsides, photographer: Gil-ad Arama
