Court allows electronic waste corporation to continue working for time being
District Court rules Ecommunity can continue serving 125 local authorities until hearing is held on Environment Ministry’s sudden decision to withdraw recognition
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Jerusalem’s District Court for Administrative Affairs issued an interim injunction on Tuesday to allow the electronic waste collection corporation Ecommunity to continue working until the court holds a hearing on the Environmental Protection Ministry’s sudden announcement last month that it was withdrawing recognition from the organization.
On July 10, Elad Amichai, the Environmental Protection Ministry’s senior director for local government, informed Ronen Yoeli, Ecommunity’s CEO since March 2023, that the corporation’s recognition would not be renewed for a third five-year period.
The ministry said it had tightened conditions for recognition to ensure better service to the public.
But this left Ecommunity with only two more days in business and some 125 local authorities representing around 4 million Israelis without any immediate way of recycling electric and electronic items.
Both the corporation and the ministry were flooded with letters of protest from local authorities, the roughly 700 communities they cover, and some of the hundreds of companies that have worked with the corporation, in some cases, since it began operating over a decade ago.
Ecommunity submitted a petition to the court just over two weeks ago.
E-waste, which contains toxic materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and flame retardants, represents just three percent of all refuse but creates 70 percent of waste-generated pollution.
The Knesset passed the Law for the Environmental Treatment of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Batteries in 2012, which went into effect two years later.
This covers appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators and consumer electronics such as computers, radios, and game consoles.
Following the principle of “the polluter pays,” the law obliged the hundreds of importers and manufacturers of electrical, electronic goods and household batteries to finance the collection and recycling of at least 50% of the total weight of the goods sold yearly. (For different kinds of batteries, the targets range from 25% to 35%).
The law instructed appliance sellers to contract with “accredited compliance bodies” for disposal and recycling. Two entities were chosen: the Israel Electronics Recycling Corporation, known by its Hebrew acronym M.A.I., and Ecommunity.
Employing a slew of companies, Ecommunity, like M.A.I., has had to coordinate between the importers and manufacturers, who pay the bills, the local authorities that provide the waste collection facilities, the organizations and homes from which waste is picked up directly, the retailers who accept e-waste and pick up old appliances when they deliver new ones, and dozens of private, licensed recyclers. Among Ecommunity’s many subcontracted staff are some 150 people with special needs.
According to the law, recognition must be reevaluated every five years.
On July 14, the ministry published a notice announcing that recognition had been extended for M.A.I. and given to a new company, T.A.M.I. The latter still lacks an internet presence or a website.
Ministry officials said they were studying the injunction and considering their steps.
