Green legislation in Israel

Enforcement of the Tire Recycling Law Begins
Updated: 10/16/2007

A national campaign aimed at enforcing the Tire Disposal and Recycling Law was conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Green Police on September 25, 2007. During the campaign, Green Police inspectors visited 114 tire repair shops, provided explanations and distributed information sheets on the new law, and checked compliance with the law, especially in terms of proper storage and disposal of used tires. 

The results showed that three months after the entrance of the law into effect, tire importers and Israel’s tire manufacturer (Alliance Tire Company Ltd.) have begun to collect used tires from repair shops, but not necessarily at the necessary frequency. On the one hand, this represents a major improvement in comparison to conditions prior to the law and demonstrates that steps are slowly being introduced to deal with the problem of waste tires. On the other hand, in most of the shops – 87 out of 114 – flaws in compliance were discovered, mostly in relation to the storage of used tires.
Warnings were issued to the owners of those shops in which shortcomings were found, which called on the owners to address the problems and repair the flaws. Business owners who will not take the necessary steps will be subject to enforcement proceedings, and if necessary, to indictments. The maximum penalty under the law in case of conviction is a 67,300 shekel fine for an individual and double that sum for a corporation.

Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra said that in light of the results of the campaign and the importance of implementing the law, he will instruct Green Police inspectors to expand their enforcement activities to additional shops and to revisit those shops to which warnings were issued in order ensure that used tires are indeed stored and treated in a manner that prevents environmental nuisances, especially water accumulation in tires which then become mosquito breeding sites.

More on the Tire Disposal and Recycling Law

Israel’s Tire Disposal and Recycling Law came into effect in the beginning of July 2007. It aims to prevent environmental nuisances due to the improper disposal of used tires and to save raw materials. The law states that tire importers and producers are responsible for collecting used tires from tire sale and repair shops and transferring them for recycling.
The law also requires shops for the sale and repair of tires to store these tires in such a way as to prevent the accumulation of water and the creation of environmental nuisances. Shop owners are obligated to transfer used tires from their premises on a regular basis to importers and producers in order to prevent the creation of large stockpiles of tires.