Following an indictment filed by the Environmental Protection Ministry, iron and
metals processing firm Dan Recycling Ltd. has received a fine of NIS 400,000
from the Petah Tikvah Magistrate Court for causing severe air pollution in the
region and for running without a license, the ministry said on
Monday.
The company, which operates in the industrial area near Tira and
the Kochav Yair settlement, has faced complaints from local residents for years,
and the ministry filed the lawsuit after deeming that the plant activities
“constituted an environmental hazard, which caused severe air quality hazards,”
according to a statement from the ministry spokesperson.
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the NIS 400,000 fine, the CEO of the company will be required to perform 150
hours of community service, and the company also signed an NIS 800,000 pledge
that over the next three years it would abstain from carrying out similar
offenses, the statement said.
“This court decision is important news to
the area’s residents, who for many long years have expressed their concerns
about the effects of the plant operations,” said Gideon Mazor, central district
manager of the Environmental Protection Ministry, in a
statement.
According to the court’s decision, the plant can continue its
operations with its current processor only twice a week for the rest of the
year. The decision also includes a court order to close the plant, effective
within two years, if the operators do not obtain a business license in
accordance with the law, the statement said.
“The decision includes a
long list of professional rules that went into place immediately, and the
Environmental Protection Ministry will oversee the implementation [of these
standards]. In the case of the company’s failure to comply, it will be
considered to be in contempt of court.”
Dan Recycling told
The Jerusalem
Post, however, that the allegations against them were incorrect, and that they
just settled with the towns and the ministry after three years of tireless
fighting.
“We don't think we caused any problems in the neighborhood,”
Doron Hanan, former general manager and one of the current company directors
told the
Post. “The village of Kochav Yair, like anywhere, is following the
saying ‘Not In My Backyard.’” “Anywhere in the world where you're dealing with
recycling material it’s noisy and people don't want it there,” he continued,
denying that the Environmental Protection Ministry ever truly found proof that
hazardous pollutants were affecting air quality there.
Hanan added that
since the company’s establishment in 1994, they have been recycling millions of
tons of scrap metal, a process that they are doing as well in Acre, where they
have friendly relations with the community.