Absolute Rubbish! Turning a Garbage Dump into a Sustainable Environmental Park

For the past 12 years, Hiriya, a garbage dump outside Tel Aviv, has not accepted anymore refuse.  Instead the site, the largest pile of garbage in Israel, has been transformed into a model of environmental sustainability. With three recycling plants, an environmental education center, a reed bed to treat waste water, and a facility to turn methane bio gas into a source of energy for a nearby textile company, Hiriya isn’t exactly what comes to mind when one thinks about a rotting garbage dump.

But why stop there? German architect Peter Latz has an even bigger vision of what the site can become. Latz and his office won a competition to transform Hiriya, the largest open space in the overcrowded Dan region into a full-fledged park.

Latz has succeeded in turning industrial wastelands into parks before, using a unique approach.  Instead of rejecting the industrial past of a site, he tries to preserve the memory of what a place was.  He explained in an interview with the Jerusalem Post: “I leave enough elements to see what was before, but I also change it…One of my philosophies is to use all the elements, even if they’re not very gentle, because people are curious.”

For Hiriya, the recycling plants will remain and offer observation decks along a walking path; the massive hydraulic system of the park will become part of a climbing wall, and canals that help protect the site from floods will also serve as walking and biking paths.

While the site will not be completely transformed for another 25 years, one day children may be asking their parents if they can go play in the dump.

Photo courtesy of pshab on flickr, used under Creative Commons License.

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