Our Achievements: 2020

We declared waste reduction to be a cross-organizational objective two years ago, based on the understanding that an individual’s behavior with respect to public space is an expression of their relationship to nature and the environment. A clean public space is a baseline and common ground to conceptualize responsibility for the environment, care and concern for nature, and personal responsibility for our behavior. Litter is also one of the issues that most bothers people when they spend time in nature; thus, it acts as a starting point when discussing affinity for nature, and our personal and corporate responsibility for protecting it. This is one of the few topics in nature conservation in which each individual can enact and perceive change through their own behavior.

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Additionally, litter in nature has a real, serious effect in Israel - whether through the direct impact of harming wildlife as a result of exposure to waste (by eating it, becoming trapped, etc.) or through an indirect impact – the accumulation of organic waste leads to significant growth of local wildlife populations (typically boar or jackals) beyond the natural carrying capacity of the land (‘overabundant species’). This causes increased damage to agriculture, leading to poisoning and pesticide use that further damage nature. The poisoning of vultures in the Golan, for example, stemmed from pesticides spread by farmers in an effort to deal with agricultural damage caused by wildlife.

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We received a designated budget that will allow us to run extensive activities on this topic through publicity campaigns, education, and content development for raising public awareness. We are working with NAKI (an association for promoting litter-reduction in Israel) to coordinate these activities.

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So what did we do?

Extensive education and publicity activities in the field: From October to December, between the second and third lockdowns, we issued extensive publicity under the title “Clean Nature Is in My Hands”. Our field units offered diverse educational activities for youth, school children, preschools, and families. A special effort was made in the lead-up to Chanukah, to encourage the many hikers to leave nature cleaner than they found it.

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The first International Coastal Cleanup Day was held on 30.10.20 with the participation of about 18,000 people. We were the main organizers of this event and many of our field units took part in running this day together with municipalities and many other organizations, in one hundred locations along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Sea of Galilee.

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At the beginning of the swimming season, the staff of the Golan and Hermon Field School and Kiryat Shmona Field Study Center embarked on a publicity campaign for clean beaches along the Kinneret Trail, with the help of the Kinneret Drainage Authority. On the coastal cleanup day, the community of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Modi’in and its surroundings, together with hiking groups, set up an information booth on the western coast of Yafo. Together with activists from the Scouts, they participated in races and games and of course, they left behind a much cleaner and healthier beach.

 

The Be’er Sheva community, in cooperation with hiking groups, invited residents to take part in a cleaning project, through a wonderful activity with children who came to the neighborhood parks (in pods), listened to stories told by our guides, participated in races and games, and also left behind a much cleaner park.

 

The pre-army service year volunteers of the Eastern Galilee Field Studies Center also participated in the great Coastal Cleanup Day and “took charge” of three beaches in the southwest of the Sea of Galilee: Ginosar Beach, the beach next to Kinneret cemetery, and Beit Gabriel Beach. Throughout the day, different groups came to listen to explanations and clean the beaches, and in order to leave the Sea of Galilee clean in the lead-up to the rainy season.

 

The Arab community ran information days on the streams of the Galilee and the Carmel region, within the urban nature of Jerusalem, and in the open landscapes of the country’s south and center, in which we set up information booths and distributed waste bags to hikers. More than 500 families visited the booths. During each information day, short explanatory videos were made with the participation of the coordinating instructors, together with the hikers. The goal was to promote, expand, and raise public awareness through media. In addition, interviews were conducted on radio and television, regarding the use of disposable items and their impact on nature and the environment, including a direct plea to hikers to support and aid nature conservation.

 

Cleanup days were also held in cooperation with the community, local councils, and municipal leaders in the Arab community, in Beit Jann, Kaukab Abu al Hija, Deir Hanna, Ka’abiyye, Tamra, and more.

 

The Hof HaCarmel Field School staff worked at the following beaches: Michmoret, Beit Yanai, Ma’ayan Tzvi, Ma’agan Michael, Jisr az-Zarqa, and Nachsholim. Each Friday throughout the summer, the guides provided information at the Hof HaCarmel beaches to encourage litter prevention and nature conservation, in cooperation with the regional council.

 

Within the framework of the great Coastal Cleanup Day, the Shikmim Field School ran information booths at the Ashkelon and Nitzanim beaches, in partnership with the people of the region and in cooperation with soldiers from the Nitzanim training base who came to help and clean.

 

The staff from Haifa and the surrounding area led a cleaning activity in the Haifa and Krayot region; with the help of activists, hiking groups, and many volunteers, information was provided at different stations. The activity took place with the collaboration of the municipality and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), and acted as a springboard for new collaborations to expand activity related to the sea and marinas. In total, more than 1,500 people, including families, youth, adults, school children, scouts, marine scouts, and others took part in a significant cleanup of the beaches and participated in the environmental instruction sessions. More than 20,000 people visited the information booths that were set up for two months throughout the city.

 

In the Jerusalem community, thousands of children from ultra-orthodox schools participated in the education and cleanup activities at urban nature sites.

 

In parallel, training sessions for the educational program “Clean Nature Is in Our Hands” were hosted for all the coordinators and instructors of our education department. New programs and activities were developed, and instruction manuals were produced for all divisions. In early 2021, we will complete an electronic educational program on litter reduction, which will enrich our toolbox for teaching about this issue.

 

Promoting waste reduction in the IDF

Within the framework of the Nature Defense Force (NDF), commanders take responsibility for their environment, waste treatment was identified as a strategic issue. Led by the army’s infrastructure division, a plan was formulated to measure waste and recycling on IDF grounds and in open landscapes, with the aim of reducing waste that may attract wildlife. The plan, which is in its initial stages, will provide the military with concrete data about waste composition at IDF bases and its recycling potential, alongside data on the feasibility of waste separation, based on behavioral economics.

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As well as measuring waste on the bases, and from an understanding that waste from the bases reaches or leaks into open landscapes, a plan was formulated for defining a standard for waste separation and litter prevention in training areas. This includes pilot projects to create permanent infrastructural change in the spaces used by IDF commanders and soldiers. The activity will also include monitoring wildlife behavior following changes to waste management at IDF bases.

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By integrating these data points, decision makers in the military will be able to examine the waste management system and adapt it to the findings and recommendations.

 

The issue of IDF waste already resulted in a few successes in 2020. First, in the Chief-of-Staffs Office, about 130 IDF units, led by the Director of the Technological and Logistics Directorate, nature and environmental topics were evaluated with an emphasis on waste; the IDF held a waste separation and recycling competition; a wildlife and pest control administration was set up, including 30 service-contracted professional veterinarians; the directorate reestablished its environmental protection division and an environmental hazards hotline; and fieldwork was done to define the commands and procedures in the Planning Directorate. Additionally, we have seen the organic growth of independent, semi-military forums in WhatsApp and on social media, led by soldiers and commanders taking initiative with respect to reducing the use of plastic and minimizing environmental harm, while developing means of sharing information and collaborating system-wide to promote the cause. This expands the ability to spread the messages from the project within the IDF system.

Reporting with the “For Nature” app

 

In late 2020, we launched a demo version of an app for reporting on the maintenance level of 350 nature sites throughout the country. The aim of the app is to act as a civilian enforcement network, a public infrastructure through which we can convince municipalities to adapt infrastructure to pressing needs, enforce rules, provide information, and more. The information will encourage the public to be aware of the sites’ conditions and raise public awareness by publishing the findings routinely. The app was prepared in a very (very) short timeline, thanks to the broad mobilization of many of the organization’s employees to write content, collect photos, provide feedback on the demo version, and more. The app will launch to the public in early 2021.

 

Preparing litter prevention materials

We are currently producing a series of nine short videos that illustrate the importance of not littering, with an emphasis on the damage caused to wildlife by waste. The videos focus on a few common knowledge gaps (such as the damage caused by hanging garbage bags on trees or leaving them in the open, or the damage caused by organic waste), and encourage use of the app.

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Preparation of an educational computer game

We are constructing a game on the topic of litter prevention that will be available and suitable for use in both formal and informal educational frameworks, for the benefit of the general public.

 

Towards next year

From our study of waste-related problems, it is clear to us that in order to effect real change, a general systematic approach is required, including: educational activities, information to raise awareness, and suitable infrastructural solutions, in collaboration with local municipalities and enforcement. Likewise, since we are dealing with cultural change, this process will require time, and naturally, resources.

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In the coming year, we will routinely use the “For Nature” app as well as publicity material, some of which is still being produced, to continue raising awareness of this issue and make it a priority on the public agenda.

 

In order to continue our progress, we will continue our fundraising efforts to implement our “Great Plan” to create a clean country, among other initiatives, through a coalition of other agencies dealing with this issue in national government, local government, and civil society.