Israel announced on Tuesday the launch of the environmental flagship project “Otef Israel,” marking the establishment of an advanced facility for generating electricity from household waste and agricultural trimmings. The project will be built between Kibbutz Tze’elim and Kibbutz Gvulot in the Negev Desert, within the Eshkol Regional Council area, close to the Gaza Strip border.
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Costing 300 million shekels ($80 million), the facility will cover 40,000 square meters (10 acres) and is designed to handle approximately 200,000 tons of waste and trimmings annually. Through the German STRABAG company’s biogas technology, the site will employ anaerobic digestion, breaking down materials without oxygen and free of odorous nuisances. This process will produce methane gas, used to generate 6.3 megawatts of electricity and an estimated 38,000 tons of high-quality compost.
The initiative, part of a government program to strengthen the area around the Gaza Strip, will not only significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and landfill waste but also act as an economic anchor for the council. It is expected to create dozens of new jobs for local residents.