Israel Waste Treatment Market Opportunities for U.S. Companies
Israel’s landfills are reaching capacity
Israel’s waste treatment industry is underdeveloped with approximately 80% of its waste being sent to landfill and only 20% to recycling. This leads to environmental hazards such as groundwater and air pollution. Furthermore, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOEP) cautions that Israel is quickly approaching full capacity of its current landfills.
Government sets ambitious recycling goals
To tackle this unsustainable status quo, the MOEP announced, in 2021, a strategic plan to transform Israel’s waste treatment industry. The ultimate goal is a transition—by 2050—Israel’s current, resource-consuming, linear economy into a circular economy, which strives for minimum waste production and maximum efficiency in the use of resources. MOEP’s short-term goals for 2030 are to recycle 54% of the waste (compared to 20% in 2020), to create the necessary infrastructure for separation at source, and to establish sorting facilities that will process 100% of the waste, while reducing landfill disposal to 20% (from 80% in 2020).
Furthermore, in line with Israel’s commitments to the Paris Agreement, in July 2021, the Israeli Government updated its 2015 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goal to a 27% decrease in GHG emission levels by 2030, using 2015 as the base year. As part of this decision, the government commits to reducing GHG emissions originating from solid waste by 47% until 2030, and by 92% until 2050, using 2015 as the base year. Additionally, the government commits to a reduction of 71% in municipal solid waste sent to landfill by 2030, compared to 2018.
Sizeable opportunities for U.S. waste treatment companies
The Government of Israel is planning to establish, in the coming years, approximately 3 Waste-to-Energy (WtE) facilities and 10-20 Anaerobic recycling facilities. The largest of these projects will be promoted as international Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) tenders by the Israeli Ministry of Finance, whereas the smaller scale projects will be led by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection and local municipalities.
A total of 5 international PPP projects are in early design stage today with desired commercialization between 2029-2033. This means that in 2025-2026, there will likely be multiple tenders published. Accordingly, U.S. companies with relevant technologies are encouraged to start familiarizing themselves with the market, regulations, local partners, etc. so that they are prepared to bid in a few years’ time.
The international PPP tenders are expected to process between 100k ton annually for the smaller facilities, and 500k ton annually for the larger facilities. The estimated cost is between $200 million to $320 million per facility, depending on the size.
Since waste treatment facilities at this scale are not currently operating in Israel, the Government of Israel is keen to attract U.S. companies to bid on these upcoming projects and attract advanced technologies and know-how to the Israeli market.
Supply of relevant waste treatment/sorting technology and know-how, alongside investing in, building, and equipping of new facilities, are all practicable opportunities for U.S. exporters.
Next Steps
U.S. companies with relevant experience are encouraged to contact the U.S. Commercial Service in Israel for additional information: Naama.Altman@trade.gov.