know thine enemy: plastic

In order to conquer the enemy you have to know the enemy. And enemy, your name is plastic. We may live in a small country, but there is nothing small about our consumption of plastic here in Israel - especially in recent years. Approximately 600 million large beverage bottles and 300 million small beverage bottles are consumed in Israel each year, with a 10% - 15% annual growth rate. Plastic constitutes 28% of the volume and 11% of the weight of Israeli waste.

In 2005, the average Israeli citizen produced 1.8 kg of garbage every day - a total national waste of 4.2 million tons during that year. This amount increases by 4% - 5% each year and by 2010 the space used to bury waste will be all used up.

Pretty scary stuff, right?

There's an upside, though. Separating and recycling your waste at the source (meaning, in your house before you take out the trash) could lead to a 60% reduction in the amount of waste transferred to waste burial. Only 20% of the plastic bottles produced in Israel are currently recycled, but if more of them were recycled it would make a big difference in the amount of space required to dump our garbage. (Or, alternatively, you could stop drinking bottled water altogether and get a Brita, whose filter can also be recycled.)

But first you have to know what you can recycle. Most people already know that you can recycle empty bottles from water, soda, etc. But did you know that you can also recycle the empty bottles from your shampoo, cleaning supplies, cosmetics, and cooking supplies? In fact, you can recycle any plastic container marked with one of the triangular recycling symbols above except for the yellow symbol with the number 3 inside. The stamps are usually imprinted on the bottom of the bottles.

For more information about plastic recycling in Israel, see the Aviv Recycling website.

the incredible bulk

Hulk, bulk, shmulk. He's green, so it sort of counts. And he rhymes, too.

In an attempt to reduce the amounts of garbage that my food consumption generates, I've started buying as many of my dry foods in bulk as possible. Not only does this reduce the packaging (and garbage) associated with the food I eat, but it also means that the energy used to get my food to me (such as the gas used to transport the food) is more efficient. It is much more efficient for a truck (or van, or whatever) to transport large bulk bags of a product as opposed to a much lesser quantity of individually packaged products. Plus, since it is much more efficient means of food supply, it is way cheaper to buy food in bulk.

If you live in Tel Aviv, then your average AM:PM definitely won't have a bulk food section. But if you go to some of the health food stores that are all over Tel Aviv, it's easy to find a wide variety of foods offered in bulk. My favorite is Nitsat Haduvdevan at 58 Ibn Gvirol. They have a really big selection, and the products that I get there in bulk are always a fraction of the price of their packaged counterpart. Their bulk products range from grains to dehydrated vegetables, to all kinds of flour, legumes, nuts, and dried fruits. Teva Castel, which has stores all over Tel Aviv (including a really nice new one on the corner of Dizengoff and Frishman), also has a big bulk selection that includes spice blends and granola. The Organic Market at 59 Sheinkin Street has a small bulk foods section, but they offer organic bulk products. It's definitely the yuppiest store of all three.

Buying in bulk means you need to figure out your own means of packaging the food, though. I keep a bunch of reused plastic bags for buying bulk foods in my bag so that I have them whenever I want to go shopping. Then I transfer the food into reused glass jars and containers when I get home so that I can reuse the plastic bag instead of consuming another one the next time. A little fanatic, but plastic is bad.

i struck oil!

My most recent bottle of olive oil, which came from my infamous Moroccan grandmother, was in a Jagermeister bottle. Not because my grandmother is an alcoholic, but because she buys olive oil in big containers and then distributes the oil into glass bottles (that she reuses from other products, such as Jagermeister). Without even knowing it, she's reusing resources and reducing consumption of packaging.

It's not easy to buy olive oil in bulk when you live in a city, though. Even though I would like to buy it in bulk and reduce the packaging associated with olive oil, especially since it's something I use on a daily basis, I just figured it was pretty much impossible since I currently live in a city. I thought I'd just rely on my grandmother for all of my bulk olive oil needs.

But no more! Today I passed by Shook Levinsky (a great market for bulk dry goods) on my way home to pick up some loose black tea and found an olive oil store that lets you bring your own glass bottles from home and fill them from an olive oil tap that they have in the store. Some of the types of olive oil that they carry are even organic. The owner of the store is very nice and will let you try the different kinds of olive oil, too. The store - called "Hamesik shel Oded (המסיק של עודד)" - is located at the corners of Levinsky Street and Hachaluzim Street.

If you do decide to go there, my grandmother swears by keeping olive oil in dark glass bottles such as - you guessed it - Jagermeister.