Through Awareness, Education, and Cleanups, an Israeli Initiative is Taking a Stand on Plastics

Try to picture it -- a microplastics researcher moves to Israel, is disturbed by all the litter she finds on the beach, looks to join a beach cleanup, and can't seem to find one.

So, what does one do in this case? In true Israeli fashion, she took matters into her own hands.

“It took me about two months to organize my own cleanup, which was in March of 2018. I advertised it on Facebook and Instagram. In the end, 12 people showed up,” recalls Stav Friedman, an American-born research assistant at the Medical Research Council Centre for Environment and Health’s Microplastics Lab at King’s College London’s School of Population Health & Environmental Sciences.

This small group became the starting point for Plastic Free Israel, which seeks to minimize the use of plastics among Israelis. It's since evolved into a grassroots movement with monthly beach cleanups in various locations around Tel Aviv.

Plastic production and consumption are at an all-time high, with most of it ending up in landfills instead of being recycled. And over 250,000 tons of it are floating around in the ocean.

In her research, Friedman studies the effect of microplastics on the environment, noting that it's made its way into the water we drink and the food we eat.

Read more about it here.

Off to enjoy some water out of my glass water bottle...no plastic for me! Till next time!

J

In win for environment, Israel won’t issue new oil shale exploration permits

The Israeli government announced on Tuesday that it would no longer issue permits for oil shale exploration, a move that was welcomed by environmentalists. The decision applies to both drilling, as well as open cast mining.

The decision came in light of the government's commitment to clean energy.

Existing licenses will not be renewed, and any future license requests would be judged by environmental criteria drawn up by the Environmental Protection Ministry.

The Society for the Protection of Nature, which has campaigned to have oil shale stopped, welcomed the decision, saying the industry caused “serious environmental harm, which has no place in Israel.”

Environmentalists in Israel still feel that the government needs to go further and ban any such licenses, no matter the circumstances.

Oil shale is considered the dirtiest kind of oil that exists, polluting not only as a finished product, but in the entire process of extraction.

Read more about it here.


Off to enjoy the clean air of the Atlantic Ocean, till next time!


J