Haifa celebrates eco-friendly Christmas

VIDEO - Haifa, Israel's third largest city, will celebrate this Christmas in an eco-friendly fashion with the unveiling of a new 38-foot Christmas tree made entirely of recycled water bottles and other plastic objects donated by its residents and on display in the city's center. The tree, comprised of 5,480 recycled bottles and illuminated by LED-certified lights, was created by Israeli designer Hadas Itzcovitch and her father, artist Ernest Itzcovitch, to raise awareness of environmental issues. Hadas decided to use recycled materials because she wanted to demonstrate the possibility of creating an environmentally friendly work that is beautiful, impressive and festive whilst using cheap and simple materials. The project shows the 'green' option that protects the environment and is affordable as the raw materials were 'donated' for they were available at no extra cost. "In order to keep to the deadlines of planning and creating the tree, all of which had to be completed in a month and a half, I worked without a break and with few hours of sleep but with much adrenaline and motivation for the project,” she recounts. “We woke up daily in the early hours of the morning and were already at work in the workshop from 6am, non-stop till midnight”. The Haifa municipality management team is responsible for realizing the project and volunteered to collect the bottles directly from the recycling cages scattered thought the city. A big thanks is extended to the citizens of Haifa who are dedicated to the subject of recycling and threw away their plastic bottled to the recycling cages and not in the ordinary waste bins. The "green" tree comes just in time for the 90,000 travelers from around the world expected to arrive in Israel for the holiday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook