Supermarkets are ill-prepared for expanded bottle deposit law

It’s fun the first time you pop your recyclable beverage containers into a talking bottle return machine and watch them disappear, with a snap, to be sorted and prepared for recycling.

If you paid a deposit when you first bought the glass and plastic bottles or aluminum cans, you pay them and get a deposit refund voucher.

The reporter took her bottles to a branch of the Yochananoff supermarket in southern Jerusalem to test a NIS 100,000 ($ 31,600) machine designed by Israeli company Asufta and produced overseas to its specifications.

The machine accepts one bottle or can at a time, swallows it, sorts it and crushes it into pieces, optimizing space and requiring less transport.

And he doesn’t suffer from cheaters.

He knows how to identify a container which does not have a deposit barcode or which is cardboard (thick cardboard), and asks you to remove it immediately – in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian or English; you choose.

The machine has trivial information and a cute cartoon of dancing bottles and cans.

Did you know, for example, that a pair of jeans can hold an average of eight recycled plastic bottles?

Right now, only 50 of Asufta’s reverse vending machines are in outlets, with another 200 on order and expected to arrive by February.

Another company, the Norwegian Tomra, supplied 150 stores with its machines – which compress rather than shred – through an Israeli company, Afcon Control and Automation Services. 25 more are on order.

The Environmental Protection Department says, in an apparent slight understatement, that nationwide there are some 180 reverse vending machines in stores in total, with another 220 on the way.

But that’s a drop in the bottle, given that on December 1 an expanded law on the deposit of bottles will come into force.

Since 2001, when the government passed the Beverage Container Deposit Act, a refundable sum – currently NIS 30 agorot ($ 0.09) – has been added to the cost of all beverage cans, and glass bottles. and plastic containing 100 milliliters (3.4 fluid ounces) to 1.5 liters (1.6 pints) of beverage, to encourage people to return them after use.

In October last year, former Minister of Environmental Protection Gila Gamliel announced that the law would be extended to beverage containers of 1.5 to 5 liters (1.6 to 5.3 pints ).

She gave beverage companies and retailers a year to prepare for the changes.

She also assured that 100 million shekels ($ 31.6 million) would be available to subsidize the purchase of so-called reverse vending machines to make it easy for consumers to return their bottles and cans at gas stations, community centers and other places accessible to the public.

But her successor, Tamar Zandberg, has chosen not to subsidize something she says should be paid for by polluters – the manufacturers and importers of beverage containers and the retailers who sell them.

This change in approach led to a feud between the two women at a Knesset committee meeting earlier this month, with Gamliel accusing the ministry of unpreparedness and Zandberg criticizing chain stores for not preparing. on time.

In Europe, the machines can be found everywhere, from airports to large parking lots, and often offer consumers options such as reimbursement to charity.

“We’re not prepared at all,” Rami Levy of the Rami Levy supermarket empire told The Times of Israel on Wednesday, wondering how his staff would handle the large quantities of bottles that customers are about to bring. at the service counters for reimbursement.

“There are currently no machines in Rami Levy’s branches. We have ordered some, but it will take at least six months for them to arrive.

“We are talking about a very large quantity (of bottles),” he continued. “I don’t know how we’re going to deal with it technically. “

“The state adopts laws and does not provide solutions. He should have made sure to put machines in the chains, in the community centers, to make it easier for people to use. “

He added, “If people have to queue and don’t get a solution in the retail chains, they’ll throw the bottles in the trash instead. “

Industry sources say that with the high cost of the machines, many store owners are not ordering in the hope that either the depot law rollout will be so disastrous that it will be canceled or the fines for refusal to accept bottles and return deposits will be worth paying when the price of the machines is factored in.

In an attempt to smooth out what appears to be a bumpy transition, the Environmental Protection Department has asked local authorities not to remove, until April, the cages that so far have been used to collect more bottles. large – beverage containers without deposit stickers and not drinks containing liquids such as shampoo and laundry detergent – on a voluntary basis.

After that, according to an announcement from the ministry earlier this week, the cages will be replaced by orange bins from Tamir Corporation, already present in much of the country for the collection of all types of packaging and containers that are not glass or paper. (Separate bins exist for these last two items).

Jerusalem has not had orange bins so far, opting for residents to throw packaging and containers into general bins, the contents of which are sorted downstream by a factory north of the city.

A spokesman for the Jerusalem Municipality said talks were underway between the ministry, the municipality and Tamir over the possibility of bringing in orange trash cans to replace the bottle cages leaving the city.

In Jerusalem, 400 of the 1,000 cages have already been towed, and in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 210 out of 730 have already left.

In a public briefing via Facebook on Wednesday, ministry officials urged the public not to throw their large bottles in the trash under any circumstances.

If they do, the public will pay twice – once for landfill services, which are part of municipal taxes, and a second time for reimbursement of the lost bond.

The ministry, which is currently in dialogue with all distribution channels to urge them to prepare well, is promising major advertising campaigns among the general public as well as specific sectors such as the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs.

By law, consumers will be able to return up to 50 beverage containers at a time to any store measuring over 28 square meters (300 square feet) and get a cash refund or, if the customer wishes, a voucher.

Small stores will have to return the money on bottles purchased on their premises.

When there are no machines yet, customers will need to return their bottles and cans to customer service counters or any other specific chain board.

Cash will only be paid on bottles with the correct stickers indicating the amount of the deposit and the barcode. The minimum deposit amount is 30 agorot, although bottle manufacturers are free to increase this amount for large containers.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is in the process of establishing a deposit law hotline to which the public can report any refusal to reimburse deposits.

He promised increased inspections and fines to make sure stores are sticking to the line.

Residents who are unsure of the location of the nearest bottle cage or orange bin are advised to contact their local authority.

Two new plastic bottle recycling plants are being set up in Israel.