Mizpe Ramon is situated in the heart of a vast wild desert. It has significant residual influence on the desert environment, which is expressed, among other effects, in the slippage of garbage to the edge of town and into the desert.
This causes both eyesores and biohazards. Due to budgetary and logistic constraints, the Municipal Council does not remove garbage from around the periphery of Mitzpe Ramon.
Keshet started ‘Clean Mitzpe’ and has been able to engage many local residents in monthly cleanup actions at the edge of town, collecting and removing plastic bags and baby wipes, plastic bottles, and rubble including iron, glass and Styrofoam.
Hundreds of residents and local children took part in 20 action-days from 2014 to 2016, and removed about 12 tons of refuse, aided by the municipal sanitation department.
Beyond just clean up, the project raised consciousness as to the negative impact of garbage slippage from urban areas to nature; it has contributed to affecting a marked change in the behavior of the populace.
As part of a national project to protect biological diversity, Clean Mitzpe was sponsored in 2015 by the Society for the Protection of Nature and the Beracha Foundation.
