Our Earth
How we care for the environment

The range of environmental activities in the Central Arava is huge, encompassing residents of all ages, with all of the region's institutions working in cooperation, and also working together with neighboring regions.

Recycling
Recycling is one of them most important ways by which we can all contribute to saving the environment. In Israel 700,000 tons of paper are discarded each year, and only 30% is recycled. In order to help raise the percentage of paper recycled, receptacles have been set up in all of the settlements of the Arava, for "white" paper - office papers, magazines, mail, envelopes, etc. - as well as containers newspapers. This is in addition to the receptacles for plastic bottles which have already been in place on the settlements for the past few years.

An exhibition of the sculptures of the artist Zeevik from Kibutz Elifaz in the neighboring Hevel Eilot region is currently on view in the Arava. Zeevik "turns garbage into gold" by creating sculptures from all kinds of recycled material, all of which are then covered with a layer of paper mach?, made from shredded paper from Army bases. His sculptures will be exhibited in the Arava for three months.

Children and Farmers
Children of all ages in the Arava are involved in care of the environment. On the International Earth Day celebrated in April this year, workshops were held for pre-school and elementary school children, while older students went out into the canyons and gullies of the region to clean up waste that had accumulated over the year. In addition, Partnership 2000 is funding the "Students and the Environment" project this year, which helps to reinforce the connection of the students to their environment, since while the pupils at the local Shittim School live in the desert, they aren't necessarily familiar with it.  The project attempts to offer environmental solutions to the question that is one of the cornerstones of Zionism - how to make the desert bloom.

The farmers of the region are working together with the inspectors from the Nature Authority in order to protect and preserve the wildlife of the region, by reporting on nests and habitats that are too close for comfort to the agricultural fields, and the inspectors then transfer the "homes" of the animals to safer ground. Farmers also report on injured animals, which are then treated and released back into the wild. 

Biological Solutions
The Arava is playing an important part in efforts for an international breakthrough in the treatment of plastic waste. Each year 25 millions tons of plastic are collected throughout the world. Polythene makes up close to half of this amount, but only 15% of it is recycled. The Arava Research and Development Unit is currently engaged in recruiting funds to establish a laboratory which will develop microbes with the ability to break down polythene. The success of this research could bring about a world-wide solution to the problem of plastic waste, which we as farmers in the Arava "help" create. The research in the Arava is based upon the doctoral research of a resident of Ein Yahav.