Estimating the effectiveness of different environmental law enforcement policies on illegal C&D waste dumping in Israel Nissim Seror, Boris A. Portnov ⇑ Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, 31905, Israel article info Article history: Received 9 April 2019 Revised 21 October 2019 Accepted 24 October 2019 Keywords: Construction & demolition (C&D) waste Illegal dumping Law enforcement policies abstract Illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is a major concern for environmental policy- makers. Three different environmental law enforcement policies, aimed at the reduction of illegal C&D waste dumping, are enforced in Israel. These policies include fines (F), vehicle impoundment (V), and criminal indictment (I) by the court. Although, the scope of illegal C&D waste dumping in Israel appears to decline, little is known which of the above policies has been effective in combating the phenomenon. In an attempt to answer this question, we use data on F-V-I instances, recorded between July 2007 and December 2016, and compare them with monthly changes in the ratio between the amount of waste brought to authorized waste dumping sites and the estimated amount of C&D waste generated in the country each month. As the study shows, only the V-sanction was found to be significantly affecting the ratio (t = 3.083; p < 0.01), while the effect of other policy was found insignificant. We explain low effi- ciency of other law enforcement policies by relatively small fines imposed on the offenders, long court proceedings, combined with a relatively low chance of being caught. By contrast, the V-sanction may be more effective because it results in immediate and severe economic losses to the offenders, causing C&D waste transporters to haul their load to authorized sites. As we argue, for an environmental enforce- ment policy to be effective, it should be adequate to the severity of the offense and applied swiftly. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Land development and infrastructure activities generate a mas- sive amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste (Rinsatitnon et al., 2018). Disposal of such waste illegally can be a threat to the environment and public health (Chen et al., 2018). The matter is that piles of C&D waste, dumped illegally in open areas, may contaminate water sources and damage the landscape (Sedova, 2015). Some construction materials also contain toxic and flammable components (Mercader and De Arellano, 2013; Danso, 2018), and, if dumped illegally, may ignite causing air pol- lution, water contamination and damage to wildlife (Giovannini et al., 2014). The total amount of C&D waste, generated in Europe, is esti- mated to reach 500 million tons per year, or about 30% of the total waste generated in the continent (Mália et al., 2013). In addition to the C&D waste hauled to authorized C&D waste disposal sites, a sizable share of such waste is dumped illegally (Watkins, 2015). According to Ivovic et al. (2015), about 60,000 illegal C&D waste sites are found in isolated areas, forest and parks in Slovenia alone. The phenomenon of illegal C&D waste dumping is a well- recognized environmental problem in Israel (see Fig. 1). There are two main legislative acts dealing with this phenomenon – the Environmental Protection Law, enforced in 2011, and the Envi- ronment Cleanliness Law, enacted nearly three decades earlier, in 1984 (IMEP, 2018a). According to these Laws, inspectors of the Green Police, the environmental law-enforcement arm of the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection (IMEP), are empowered to apply three types of sanctions against the offenders. These sanc- tions include fines (F), vehicle impoundment (V), and transferring the case to the Court of Law for criminal indictment (I) (see subsec- tion on illegal C&D waste dumping in Israel for more details). According to IMEP (2018b), the total cost of cleaning illegally dumped C&D waste in Israel stands at about NIS150 million (or about US$42 million) a year, which is covered by the public budget. In 2008, only 20% of the total amount of C&D waste was brought to authorized waste disposal sites, while the rest (or 80%) was dumped illegally in open areas. However, seven years later, in 2015, the amount of C&D waste dumped illegally was about 40%, while the rest was recycled or brought to authorized C&D waste disposal sites (IMEP, 2018b). Yet, it remains unclear, which of the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.10.043 0956-053X/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Management, Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, 31905, Israel. E-mail address: Portnov@research.haifa.ac.il (B.A. Portnov). Waste Management 102 (2020) 241–248 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman