![Anaerobic digesters overhead view](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Anaerobic_digesters_overhead_view.jpg)
Ariel Sharon Park () is an environmental
park
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
along the lines of Ayalon river, in the area between Ben Gurion Airport and Highway 20 (Ayalon Highway). The area is 8.5 square kilometers big, and was intended to be the "green lung" of the southern part of Gush Dan metropolin. The park was established on the former Hiriya ( he, חירייה)
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
dump located southeast of
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, the Shalem farm, Mikveh Israel village and the Menachem Begin Park. After accumulating 25 million tons of waste, the Hiriya facility was shut down in August 1998. Hiriya is visible on approach into
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is th ...
as a flat-topped hill. Three recycling facilities have been established at the foot of the mountain: a
waste separation center, a
green waste
Green waste, also known as "biological waste", is any organic waste that can be composted. It is most usually composed of refuse from gardens such as grass clippings or leaves, and domestic or industrial kitchen wastes. Green waste does not incl ...
facility that produces
mulch
A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of soil. Reasons for applying mulch include conservation of soil moisture, improving fertility and health of the soil, reducing weed growth and enhancing the visual appeal of the area.
A m ...
and a building materials recycling plant.
[ Ariel Sharon Park transforms ‘eyesore’ into ‘paradise’](_blank)
''The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'' The waste dump and its surrounding area have been renovated into a large park that is still under construction.
History
The Hiriya landfill was located on the lands of the Palestinian village of
al-Khayriyya
Al-Khayriyya ( ar, الخيْريّة) was a Palestinian Arab village located 7.5 kilometers east of Jaffa. It became depopulated in April 1948 as a result of a military assault by the Alexandroni Brigade of the pre-state Israeli forces during the ...
,
from which the name Hiriya is derived.
The village, formerly called ''Ibn Ibraq'', preserving the name of the ancient biblical site
Beneberak Benebarak ("Sons of Barak") ( he, wikt:בני ברק, בְּנֵי בְּרַק, ''Bnei Brak'') was a biblical city mentioned in the Book of Joshua. According to the biblical account it was allocated to the Tribe of Dan. Its archaeological site is ...
, was renamed al-Khayriyya in 1924.
[Hubert Cancik, Peter Schäfer and Hermann Lichtenberger (1996), ]
Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift Für Martin Hengel Zum 70. Geburtstag
'. Mohr Siebeck. . p. 484. In the weeks prior to the outbreak of the
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
, its residents fled the village before advancing
Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
forces.
According to Rachelle Gershovitz of the ''Israel Venture Capital Journal'', the British authorities designated the area as
Crown Land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
and plans were drawn up to use it as a draining plain to solve the annual flooding problem during the
British Mandate.
Earmarked as a dump in 1952, the site grew to be more than half a mile long and over 87 yards (80 meters) above sea level.
[ Recycling in Israel, Not Just Trash, but the Whole Dump]
New York Times, 24 October 2007 The volume of waste was estimated at 16 million cubic meters. Calls to shut down the site mounted in the wake of the growing public awareness of environmental pollution, underground water contamination and the spread of noxious gases. Thousands of sea gulls and other birds attracted by the decomposing garbage created a hazard for commercial airliners taking off and landing at nearby Ben Gurion Airport.
In 1988, Hiriya ceased functioning as a waste landfill.
In 2004, an international competition was held calling for ideas on how to rehabilitate the mountain of garbage, turn it into a positive landmark and keep it from collapsing into the
Ayalon riverbed.
Ariel Sharon Park
Plans were subsequently drawn up to remediate the site and use the mountain and surrounding land as the centerpiece of Ariel Sharon Park . A area was demarcated for the park during the term of the then
Israeli prime minister
The prime minister of Israel ( he, רֹאשׁ הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, Rosh HaMemshala, Head of the Government, Hebrew acronym: he2, רה״מ; ar, رئيس الحكومة, ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief exec ...
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
S ...
, who was an avid supporter of the project.
[ The park was later named for Sharon. The planner is German landscape architect and urban planner ]Peter Latz
Peter Latz (born 1939) is a German landscape architect and a professor for landscape architecture at the Technical University of Munich. He is best known for his emphasis on reclamation and conversion of former industrialized landscapes. Retired t ...
.[An 'oasis' named Hiriya]
Haaretz, 5 May 2009 Latz has invented a technique to protect future flowers and fruits from contaminants: The landscape is being covered with a "bioplastic" layer that blocks methane, topped with layers of gravel and a meter of clean soil.
As of 2011, the park was under construction. When complete, it will be three times the size of New York's Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, and will introduce many new ecological technologies. A 50,000-seat amphitheater will also be built there.
Jurisdiction
Hiriya is not under the jurisdiction of any municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. The site is managed by the Dan Region Association of Towns Sanitation and Solid Waste Disposal board.[How Green is My Landfill](_blank)
/ref>
Remaining waste processing assets
As of 2007, Hiriya was housing the largest waste transfer station in Israel. Doron Saphir
Doron Sapir (born 1959) is the first deputy mayor of Tel Aviv – Jaffa and since 1996. He is also chairman of the building and Planning committee and a board member at the Dan Municipal Sanitation Association and at ISWA (International Solid Waste ...
was Hiriya's chairman. Three recycling plants operated at the foot of the mound, grinding building waste into gravel and dry organic matter into mulch
A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of soil. Reasons for applying mulch include conservation of soil moisture, improving fertility and health of the soil, reducing weed growth and enhancing the visual appeal of the area.
A m ...
, and a patented mechanical biological treatment
A mechanical biological treatment (MBT) system is a type of waste processing facility that combines a sorting facility with a form of biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion. MBT plants are designed to process mixed househo ...
demonstration facility where municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...
was sorted utilising the properties of water.[ The facility was a form of ]materials recovery facility
A materials recovery facility, materials reclamation facility, materials recycling facility or Multi re-use facility (MRF, pronounced "murf") is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-u ...
including upflow anaerobic sludge blanket
Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) technology, normally referred to as UASB reactor, is a form of anaerobic digester that is used for wastewater treatment.
The UASB reactor is a methanogenic (methane-producing) digester that evolved from the ...
digesters for the provision of biogas
Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...
, which was in turn used to generate renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
utilising gas engine
A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...
s.
In 2007 garden waste was sorted, and tree trunks were sent to the Hiriya carpentry shop to be recycled into wooden furniture such as benches and garden accessories for use in the park.[ Sixty gas wells have been drilled at the site to collect the methane gas trapped in the landfill. The plant generated all the electricity required by the Hiriya site and sold the excess to the ]Israel Electric Corporation
Israel Electric Corporation ( he, חברת החשמל לישראל, abbreviation: IEC) is the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The IEC builds, maintains, and operates power generation stations, sub- ...
.[
As described in a 2004 article, a recycling facility operated by the Israeli company ArrowEcology has introduced a new technology known as ArrowBio that separates recyclable materials using water technology. Eighty percent of the waste that enters the system is reused, while only 20 percent ends up in the landfill.]
Film
In 2011, a short film about the transformation of the site, ''The Hiriya Project: A Mountain of Change'', won first prize in the Clean Development Mechanism Changing Lives Photo and Video Contest sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban.‘Hiriya is symbol for solving problems’
''The Jerusalem Post''
See also
*List of solid waste treatment technologies
The article contains a list of different forms of solid waste treatment technologies and facilities employed in waste management infrastructure.
Waste handling facilities
* Civic amenity site (CA site)
* Transfer station
Established waste treatme ...
*Mechanical biological treatment
A mechanical biological treatment (MBT) system is a type of waste processing facility that combines a sorting facility with a form of biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion. MBT plants are designed to process mixed househo ...
*Constructed wetland
A constructed wetland is an artificial wetland to treat sewage, greywater, stormwater runoff or industrial wastewater. It may also be designed for land reclamation after mining, or as a mitigation step for natural areas lost to land development. ...
*Ramat Hovav
Ramat Hovav ( he, רָמַת חוֹבָב), new official name Ne'ot Hovav (), is an industrial zone in southern Israel and the site of Israel's main hazardous waste disposal facility. Ramat Hovav Industrial Zone is the locus of 19 chemical fact ...
References
External links
Hiriya website
Removing Hiriya Garbage Dump, a Test Case
{{Coord, 32, 1, 36.93, N, 34, 49, 26.71, E, display=title
Parks in Israel
Waste processing sites
Ariel Sharon