Companies that failed to recycle packaging fined NIS 1.5m.

Those that avoided contact with Tamir recycling firm each received fine of NIS 155,000 from the Environmental Protection Ministry.

By SHARON UDASIN
Recycling Station 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Recycling Station 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Twelve companies that did not follow the stipulations of the Packaging Law and avoided contact with the Tamir recycling firm each received a fine of around NIS 155,000 from the Environmental Protection Ministry, the ministry announced on Friday.
The Packaging Law, passed in January 2011, requires manufacturers and importers to take responsibility for handling all packaging waste that they bring into the market – reporting and paying for every ton of packaging, as well as working with the Tamir company to collect packaging materials from orange bins in local authorities. While 700 manufacturers and importers have begun to implement this law, 12 companies have flagrantly failed to meet the legislation’s requirements, the ministry explained.
The 12 offenders were 3M Israel, A.P. Romy Designs, Avshalom Regional Enterprises, Harash Y.Y.H., Mendelson Technical and Engineering Supply, Lilit Cosmetics, Mendelson – S. Bar, Matim Li Stores (1997), Negev Ceramics, Karat Israel, S.AL Technical Equipment and Hezibank Design.
The Packaging Law aims to bring packaging waste recycling up to 60 percent by 2015, the ministry added. In contrast with the prevailing situation in which residents themselves financially cover the evacuation of these types of waste in their arnona (municipal property tax) bills, the law calls upon the industries who generate the trash to foot the bill. Such a mechanism accounts for a direct relationship between revenue and waste production.
“The process in which all kinds of waste will be regulated and treated and thereby likely becoming a new raw material is underway,” Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz said. “We will not compromise with anyone who disturbs this and his or her disregard are spokes in the wheels of the process.”
The ministry “has no intention of allowing anyone to stop” this process, Peretz vowed.