Retail outlets told to resume collecting bottles for recycling

The Environmental Protection Ministry says it is lifting a ban on the collection of glass and plastic bottles for recycling by marketing, retail and business outlets.

It instructs outlets to resume collection immediately and calls on the public to bring in bottles stored at home for recycling.

The deposit law offers a refundable deposit on recycled bottles, from NIS 0.30 for small glass and plastic bottles to NIS 1.2 for half-liter glass beer bottles. It compels any retail store measuring more than 28 square meters (300 square feet) to provide the refunds, according to the amounts printed on all qualifying bottles.

Plastic bottles larger than 1.5 liters should continue to be deposited in large recycling bins distributed throughout the country.

Glass bottles not eligible for deposit should be thrown — without their lids — into glass recycling receptacles and tin lids deposited in tin recycling bins.

— Sue Surkes