To mark Earth Day 2010 today, Beverage Containers Collection Corporation Ltd. this week collected the three billionth bottle since the Bottle and Can Deposit Law 5759-1999 came into effect nine years ago. The volume of the beverage containers collected is equal to eight Azrieli Round Towers.
1.24 billion glass bottles, 1.06 billion cans, and 810.8 million plastic bottles have been collected.
The plastic bottles collected were used to manufacture 1.5 billion baskets used to sell fruit at supermarkets. The glass bottles amount to 281,000 tons of glass and saved the need to quarry 80,000 tons of sand at the Makhtesh Hakatan. The cans collected, with a total weight of 26,000 tons, were sent to a steel mill for recycling into new raw material, which was used in the construction of 1,605 secure rooms, thousands of apartments, and miles of fences.
2009 figures indicate that Israel has quickly boosted recycling rates to levels of the US and Europe. Israel recycled 69.2% of deposit beverage containers in 2009, 3 percentage points more than in 2008.
/>Beverage Containers Collection Corp. chairman Nehama Ronen said, "The Israeli public can be proud for reaching such high levels of recycling in less than a decade, whereas it took the US and European countries 20 years to achieve the same level."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 22, 2010
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