Autumn is the olive harvest season, and also the time in which olive presses cause great damage to the environment, pro-environment non-governmental organization “Tzalul” told the Minister for Protection of the Environment Sunday. The problem is getting worse as demand for olive oil increases.
In a letter to Minister Gilad Erdan, the NGO presented statistics regarding the annual pollution of streams as a result of faulty procedures by olive presses and asked him to take action.
The rising demand for olive oil in recent years has led to a growth in the number of olive presses throughout the country. At present there are 175 presses – 96 in northern Israel, 68 in the country's central region and 11 in the south. These presses – both the Jewish-owned ones and the Arab-owned ones – dump large amounts of
olive cake (the ground flesh and pits left after the pressing) and about 100,000 cubic meters of vegetation water (the liquid by-product of the mechanical pressing process) into streams.
These wastes cause serious damage to the ecosystem in the streams, hurting plants, fish and other forms of life. In the mountainous areas, the vegetation water seeps through cracks in the rocks into the ground water as well.
The Ministry for Protection of the Environment has been trying to prevent this pollution by encouraging the construction of installations for thickening the vegetation water, and transferring it to compost sites. However, not all of the olive processors are cooperating with this solution.