A real garbage idea

A plan is in the works to turn the waste at the Hiriya garbage dump outside Tel Aviv into fuel for vehicles.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The Dan Region Association of Towns, Sanitation and Waste Disposal has announced a bold plan to spend NIS 200 million to build a factory for recycling the waste at the disused Hiriya garbage dump outside Tel Aviv into fuel for vehicles, reports www.local.co.il. The association said it hoped to obtain state funding for the factory, which eventually would be able to process 1,500 tons of waste per day. No further details of the project were provided. The Hiriya, which covers some 450,000 square meters of land east of Tel Aviv, was the major garbage dump for cities in the Dan region between 1952 and 1998, with an estimated 20 million cubic meters of trash deposited there over the years. At the time of its closure, the hill of garbage rose to a height of 60 meters. Since then, the site has become the largest waste transfer station in the Middle East, taking in garbage from the Dan region, compressing it and moving it in trucks to dump sites in the Negev. The association is spearheading plans to rehabilitate the site and turn it into a national park.