In three to four years, Israel will be out of approved landfill spaces, a new report published Monday by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman suggests.
According to the report, Israelis generated 680kg (1,500 pounds) of waste per capita on average in 2019, compared to the average in OECD countries which stood at 538 kg (1,186 pounds).
The state comptroller's review also showed that 68% of Israel's waste is buried in its southern region. In 2020, 3.15 million of 4.66 million metric tons of waste from all over the country were buried in the south.
The probe also found that in 2020, Israel only had enough room for 14.41 million metric tons of trash. Five landfills are expected to be closed in 2022, and in three to four years, Israel is expected to run out of landfill space.
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman also noted that in the past decade, the country's annual waste volume rose by about 2.6% per year.
"This increase requires local authorities to plan a more efficient waste disposal system and use advanced tools to gather data and provide residents with a more adequate service," Englman said.
"It should be noted that waste disposal services in non-Jewish authorities are inferior to those in Jewish authorities. In recent years, several government decisions were made to allocate budgets to aid these authorities, however, they were not fully implemented.
Israel is expected to have fewer landfill spaces, even though the amount of trash is growing. The crisis caused by the lack of funds requires all relevant elements, led by the Environmental Protection Ministry, to work together to find proper solutions and implement them. Local authorities must act to reduce waste production and reduce the amount of waste being delivered to landfills."