Israeli Green Police Enforce Tyre Recycling Law

Israel has embarked on a national campaign aimed at enforcing the Tire Disposal and Recycling Law enacted on January 23, 2007. During the scrap tyre swoop on 25 September, the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Green Police inspectors visited 114 tyre repair shops, provided explanations and distributed information sheets on the new law, and checked compliance with the law, especially in terms of proper storage and disposal of used tyres.

According to the government, tyre importers and Israel’s sole new tyre manufacturer (Alliance Tire Company Ltd.) have begun to collect used tyres from garage, but not necessarily fast enough. “On the one hand, this represents a major improvement in comparison to conditions prior to the law and demonstrates that steps are slowly being introduced to deal with the problem of waste tyres. On the other hand, in most of the shops – 87 out of 114 – flaws in compliance were discovered, mostly in relation to the storage of used tyres,” the Israeli environment department said in an official statement.

Business owners who do not take the necessary steps, following initial warnings, will be subject to enforcement proceedings, and if necessary, to indictments. The maximum penalty under the law in case of conviction is a 67,300 shekel fine for an individual and double that sum for a corporation.

Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra said that in light of the results of the campaign and the importance of implementing the law, he will instruct Green Police inspectors to expand their enforcement activities to additional shops and to revisit those shops to which warnings were issued in order ensure that used tires are indeed stored and treated in a manner that prevents environmental nuisances, especially water accumulation in tires which then become mosquito breeding sites.

Israel’s Tire Disposal and Recycling Law came into effect in the beginning of July 200 and states that tyre importers and producers are responsible for collecting used tyres from tyre sale and repair shops and transferring them for recycling.
The law also requires shops for the sale and repair of tyres to store these tyres in such a way as to prevent the accumulation of water and the creation of environmental “nuisances.” According to the law, tyre producers and importers are bound to meet the following targets: Disposal or recycling of at least 50 per cent of the tyres by 30 June 2009; Disposal or recycling of at least 70 per cent of the tyres by 30 June 2011; Recycling of at least 50 pare cent and disposal of up to 35 per cent of the tyres until 30 June 2012; and recycling of at least 85 per cent of the tyres by 1 July 2012. After July 2013, producers and importers will be obligated to recycle all of the collected tyres and will be prohibited from disposing tyres, in any form, in any waste disposal site.