Israel – fixing a critical problem: used oil filters

The environmental problem-solving approach has helped Israel address the problem of water and soil contamination from used oil



In 2002, the Ministry of the Environment in cooperation with the Israel Garage Association initiated a unique pioneer project for the collection of used oil from the country‘‘s garages. Today, according to Israel‘‘s Environment Ministry, there is no question that the project worked.



The project is a product of cooperation – among divisions within the Ministry of the Environment and relevant stakeholders outside the ministry, including the Israel Garage Association, the country‘‘s major bus companies, the Israel Police and vehicle import companies. Utilizing the Environmental Problem Solving model, which was developed in the US by Dr. Malcolm Sparrow, all of the stakeholders came together to “fix” a critical problem – the contamination of water sources and soil from used oil originating in garages throughout the country.



Collection of used oil filters for recycling



While the project included three components – collection of used oil for reuse, collection of used oil filters for recycling and installation of oil/fuel separators – the greatest progress was achieved in the collection of used oil filters. It is estimated that used oil filters include up to 0.5 liters of used oil each. Yet until recently, most of this oil made its way to the municipal waste system.



Out of some 2000 garages that generate about 3 million used oil filters per year, only a few dozen collected about 14,000 used filters on a voluntary basis prior to the initiation of the project. Today, as a result of increased enforcement, education and cooperation with the Israel Garage Association, the number of garages which have contractually committed to collect used oil filters has increased to 1,300 – some 65% of the total. And even more impressive – the number of filters collected from these garages has skyrocketed, reaching 1.26 million in 2003.



And finally, the market forces which helped catalyze this revolution also brought about the purchase and operation of an oil filter recycling machine in Ramat Hovav which separates the used filters into their components: the metal and used oil are transferred for recycling and the oil-saturated paper is transferred for incineration.



Collection of used oil for reuse



In 2003, some 15,922 tons of used oil were collected, nearly a quarter of the total quantity of mineral oil sold per year and 56% of the quantity of used oil available for collection from garages. This represents a 12% increase in comparison to 2002. Moreover, the establishment of an additional plant for used oil recycling led to a doubling in the quantity recycled and a two-thirds reduction in the quantity exported for recycling in comparison to 2002.



Installation of oil/fuel separators



At the beginning of the used oil collection project, nearly no garages in Israel had installed oil/fuel separators. Today, some 210 oil separators have been installed and enforcement measures have been stepped up. Dozens of warnings have been issued to garages concerning requirements for oil/fuel separators.



A win-win approach



The Environmental Problem Solving approach calls for picking important problems and fixing them. This is exactly what Israel did. Utilizing a well-structured procedure, the Ministry of the Environment set about to clearly define a critical problem, establish a steering committee with the participation of relevant stakeholders, determine indicators for problem solving, and formulate a detailed action plan. The initial goal called for the collection of 350,000 used oil filters per year. The results far exceeded expectations. Using carrot and stick methods, the method worked so well that used filter collection companies were set up, contracts were signed, a recycling machine was pu