The Ministry of the Environment welcomes the active participation of the public in improving cleanliness throughout the country, whether on its roads, nature reserves, beaches, city centers or open areas. The tens of thousands of environmentally minded citizens who have already joined the cleanliness system are proof that environmental consciousness is growing and that it is possible to change public attitudes toward the environment.
The Cleanliness Trustee System operates under the Enforcement Coordination Division of the Ministry of the Environment and authorizes the appointment of thousands of Cleanliness Trustees.
An important and innovative enforcement feature of the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law, 1984, provides for the appointment of voluntary inspectors and Cleanliness Trustees, empowered by the Minister of the Environment to report on littering offenses.
Trustees who witness an environmental offense under the law are empowered to complete a report, with full details of the offense, and to send it to the Cleanliness Trustee System in the Ministry of the Environment for further enforcement (fine or trial). Reports filed by cleanliness trustees form the basis for a subsequent "finable offense" procedure, which provides for the payment of a fine in lieu of an appearance in court.
The Ministry of the Environment’s Cleanliness Trustee System is responsible for recruiting and training Cleanliness Inspectors (from among civil servants and inspectors of government agencies and local authorities) and Cleanliness Trustees (from the general public). Some 160,000 volunteers have joined the system, 1,000 of them actively involved in law enforcement.
The system maintains contact with the trustees through letters, tours and educational seminars in order to familiarize them with the provisions of the law and to increase their commitment to the environment in general. In addition, Cleanliness Trustees receive a personalized bi-monthly feedback report on the implementation of their reports and on court cases on the subject.
Thousands of new inspectors and trustees are empowered each year—from the general public and from such bodies as the Nature and Parks Authority, the Jewish National Fund, the Green Police, local authorities, government-affiliated bodies such as the Mekorot Water Company, the Israel Defense Forces and, of course, from the Ministry of the Environment itself.
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