Truckers’ dispute over long lines at landfill site threatens waste collection

A dispute between garbage truck drivers and a major landfill site in southern Israel is threatening to overwhelm numerous cities with household waste, as transit collection sites say they are struggling to cope and will stop accepting trash for sorting and onward transportation from Friday.

The Efeh landfill site in southeastern Israel collects some 60 percent of household waste in the country.

Truck drivers and the companies hiring them claim long waiting times at Efeh are causing them economic damage. Some trucks have been blocking the entrance to the site in protest.

The dispute is affecting waste transition sites throughout central Israel, Jerusalem, and parts of the north.

On Tuesday, Reuven Ladijanski, chairman of the Dan Cities Association for Sanitation and Waste Disposal, announced that the Hiriya waste sorting and transfer center, which it operates, would no longer be able to receive any more trash, effective Friday. The Hiriya center works directly with the truck companies.

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Ministry’s director general, Rami Rosen, responded to the Dan Cities Association. In a letter, Rosen blamed the association for the problems and said that according to the Efeh site, operations there were proceeding as usual.

Rosen charged that the association, which provides services to around two dozen local authorities, was solely responsible for waste treatment, including collection and final disposal, and that difficulties with drivers and removal contractors did not detract from this responsibility.

“A business dispute cannot come at the expense of public health,” he went on, urging the association to contact the police if it suspected criminal activity.

To help resolve the backlog, however, Rosen wrote that the Efeh site had committed to extending its working hours and that the ministry had recruited Israel Railways to help “reduce the scope of the difficulties.”

Gil Livne, CEO of the Dan Cities Association, told The Times of Israel that Rosen had scheduled a meeting for all parties involved for Thursday in the hope that a solution would be found.

“For years, we have warned the ministry’s management about a national landfill crisis and have complained about the congestion and delays at the Efeh landfill site, and the ministry has done nothing,” he said.

“Even now, at the height of the crisis, we asked the ministry to give the association access to other landfill sites, but it hasn’t done that either.

“The union is committed to the authorities and is doing everything in its power to continue providing them with service, even during a crisis,” he continued. “I hope and believe that we will not end up closing the site and that tomorrow will result in an arrangement. “