Builders slam lack of dump sites in Tel Aviv

The head of the Israeli Renovation Contractors Association warns that Herzliya and Holon are turning into garbage dumps for Tel Aviv.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The lack of even one dump site for construction rubble in central Tel Aviv is forcing contractors to travel too far to take their waste to neighboring cities, and will end up with their leaving their rubble in the streets of Tel Aviv itself, according to the head of the Israeli Renovation Contractors Association, Eran Siv. In a letter sent to Mayor Ron Huldai recently, Siv complained that the lack of a dump site was turning neighboring Herzliya and Holon into garbage dumps for Tel Aviv, and would eventually backfire on the city, reports www.local.co.il. According to the report, Siv wrote that there were previously three dumps for building waste in Tel Aviv: at Glilot Junction, near the Sea and Sun project, and in Kiryat Shalem. But in recent years, following objections by surrounding residents, the city decided to close them all. Siv wrote that the lack of even one dump site in Tel Aviv was forcing contractors to travel to the two nearest sites, in Holon and Herzliya, to dump their waste, turning those cities "into de facto dumps for Tel Aviv, the city in which the greatest number of renovations in Israel is carried out." He warned that if the situation continued, the streets of Tel Aviv themselves would become dump sites, and that this would harm the environment and the quality of life for residents. A municipal spokesman responded that there were still three authorized dump sites for construction waste on the outskirts of Tel Aviv - at the Hiriya, at Hasira interchange, and in the south of the city - and there was no need for any further sites. The spokesman added that there had been a drop in the number of illegal dump sites in the city in recent years in the wake of increased policing and enforcement.