Evaluating the effect of vehicle impoundment policy on illegal construction and demolition waste dumping: Israel as a case study Nissim Seror, Shlomo Hareli, Boris A. Portnov ⇑ Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel article info Article history: Received 24 September 2013 Accepted 31 March 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Construction & demolition (C&D) waste Illegal dumping Vehicle impoundment Evaluation Questionnaire survey Waste management Policy abstract Construction and demolition (C&D) waste dumped alongside roads and in open areas is a major source of soil and underground water pollution. Since 2006, Israeli ministry for environmental protection enacted a policy of vehicle impoundment (VI) according to which track drivers caught while dumping C&D waste illegally have their vehicles impounded. The present study attempted to determine whether the VI policy was effective in increasing the waste hauling to authorized landfill sites, thus limiting the number of ille- gal unloads of C&D waste at unauthorized landfill sites and in open areas. During the study, changes in the ratio between the monthly amount of C&D waste brought to authorized landfills sites and the esti- mated total amount of C&D waste generated in different administrative districts of Israel were examined, before and after the enactment of the 2006 VI policy. Short questionnaires were also distributed among local track drivers in order to determine the degree of awareness about the policy in question and esti- mate its deterrence effects. According to the study’s results, in the district of Haifa, in which the VI policy was stringently enacted, the ratio between C&D waste, dumped in authorized landfill sites, and the total amount of generated C&D waste, increased, on the average, from 20% in January 2004 to 35% in October 2009, with the effect attributed to the number of vehicle impoundments being highly statistically signif- icant (t = 2.324; p < 0.05). By contrast, in the Jerusalem and Southern districts, in which the VI policy was less stringently enforced, the effect of VI on the above ratio was found to be insignificant (p > 0.1). The analysis of the questionnaires, distributed among the local truck drivers further indicated that the changes observed in the district of Haifa are not coincident and appeared to be linked to the VI policy’s enactment. In particular, 62% of the truck drivers, participated in the survey, were aware of the policy and 47% of them personally knew a driver whose vehicle was impounded. Furthermore, the drivers estimated the relative risk of being caught for unloading C&D waste in unauthorized sites, on the average, as high as 67%, which is likely to become a deterrent on its own. Our conclusion is that the VI policy appears to have a deterring effect on truck drivers, by encouraging them to haul C&D waste to authorized landfill sites. As we suggest, the research methodology implemented in the study and its results may help policy makers in other regions and countries, which experience similar environment enforcement problem, to analyze policy responses. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is a major source of soil and underground water pollution (Shenkar et al., 2011). According to European Commission (2010), C&D waste amounts to about 35% of the total waste generated Europe-wide. C&D waste dumped on bare ground, in forests and in scenic areas, also causes aesthetic damage to the natural landscape (IMEP, 2013). As construction materials often contain oil, solvents and fuel, these chemicals can leak into underground aquifers, thus contributing to underground water pollution (Romeo et al., 2004). In addition, the combination of evaporation and heat can also cause forest fires starting at illegal C&D waste sites and resulting in the release of toxic gases into the atmosphere (Giovannini et al., 2014; El-Fadel et al., 1997). Illegal dumping of construction waste also has economic impli- cations associated with waste cleaning and landscape restoration. In 2009 alone, local authorities in the UK spent around £45.8 mil- lion on cleaning open areas from illegally dumped waste (Defra, 2010). According to Romeo et al. (2004), the City of San Antonio in the USA spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year to mitigate environmental consequences of illegal waste dumping, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2014.03.026 0956-053X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 48288532. E-mail addresses: nisimseror@walla.co.il (N. Seror), portnov@research.haifa.ac.il (B.A. Portnov). Waste Management xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman Please cite this article in press as: Seror, N., et al. Evaluating the effect of vehicle impoundment policy on illegal construction and demolition waste dump- ing: Israel as a case study. Waste Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2014.03.026