Today (Wednesday, 22.2.23) State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman took part in the Sixth Annual Danny Sternberg Waste Management Conference at the Hiriya Recycling Park. In his speech, the State Comptroller highlighted the audit conducted concerning the unsuccessful activity of the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund and the Deposit Law.
Concerning the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund, he said: "A surplus of close to three and a quarter billion shekels has accumulated as of the end of 2020 – this is what we published in the report several months ago. This is a lot of money which is financed by the citizens of Israel. Over 90 percent of the Fund's revenue is from the landfill levy. It is no wonder that there is such a high revenue – during the years 2007-2020 the rate of the landfill levy leaped by 987%.
But despite everything, instead of the Ministry of Environmental Protection investing the funds in the objectives for which the Fund was established – the Fund's funds have become the "petty cash box" of the Ministry of Finance. Half of the Fund's funds (1.66 billion) were transferred to the Ministry of Finance, not in accordance with the law. According to an estimate we made, if the Fund's funds had been invested – it would have been possible to pay the Fund almost a billion shekels more during one decade.
As a result, the landfill rate of waste in Israel was 77% in 2019, almost twice as much as the landfill rate in the OECD countries, which totaled just 42%. And from 2007 to 2019 the landfill rate dropped by just 3%.
This means many years of failure in the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund's activity and this has to change.
From here, I wish to call upon the Ministers of Finance and Environmental Protection and now also the Minister of Interior – to use the Fund's funds to reduce the landfill waste and to comply with the targets for which the Fund was established. A dedicated tax collected from the citizens of Israel should not be used in the "do what you like with it" way".
Concerning the Deposit Law, he said: "In the report we published we showed that the recycling target for large bottles had not been met. The Deposit Law is important and it would be good to continue with it, but we must remember its purpose: recycling.
The recycling rate of domestic waste in Israel was 7% in 2018 - one quarter of the OECD average.
As long as the recycling is not accessible to the general public – the State of Israel will not succeed in recycling. In the report we published we recommended that the Ministry of Environmental Protection examine, in cooperation with the collection and recycling corporations, the wide-scale national installation of automatic machines which will enable the consumer to receive a credit without the necessity of waiting in line for a check-out clerk.
I recommend to the Minister of Environmental Protection to install bottle collection facilities in every accessible place – not only in supermarkets, but also in convenience stores, shopping and food centers and in every place where the public goes. Inaccessible recycling leaves the public indifferent.
It is also important to make sure that the export of the recycled containers is carried out to global sites which recycle on the high treatment hierarchy".