Israel promotes agriculture waste recycling

JERUSALEM (Scrap Monster): The agriculture waste from Israel will now go into recycling facilities instead of getting dumped in the landfills.

The agricluture waste includes more than 15,000 tons of plastic used by Israeli farmers today, in the form of greenhouses, drip irrigation systems, and crop protection sheets, as well as various nets and basket.

Currently, majority of the plastic is burned, landfilled or just dumped away in the open by estimated amount of 3,000 tons a year.

A proposal for recycling of plastic materials used in agriculture has been submitted by a joint team of Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Agriculture.

The inter-ministerial team recommends making it mandatory for the farmers to separate plastic from the rest of the waste and transfer it to material recovery facilities. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is due to submit the necessary legislation corrections that will regulate the recycling in the agricultural sector.

Gilad Erdan, Minister of Environmental Protection commented," "The recycling momentum is joined by all the sectors of the national economy. In addition to economic and environmental benefits, agricultural recycling will prevent the waste-burning hazard, transfer of diseases and smell hazards."

Furthermore, there are also plans to provide agriculture tree waste mashing services to the people.

Trimmed tree foliage and branches will be mashed and re-used for soil coverage, reducing water evaporation and increasing overall productivity.

Burning of the tree waste creates smoke and air pollution, and is a possible cause for diseases and a danger to biodiversity. Unorganized treatment of the tree waste causes a spread of disease and pests to the crops, thus causing increasing pesticide use, creating unpleasant smells and adding up to the danger in case of fire.