The Environment Ministry and Jerusalem Municipality are now trying to counteract this trend, by means of a wide-ranging plan for disposing of construction waste.

For years, the municipality ignored the issue, prompting the Environment Ministry to launch a criminal investigation two years ago with the aim of filing an indictment. Instead, the Ministry launched the most ambitious attempt yet for combating the problem of construction waste, a project which has been accorded a budget of NIS 21 million.

The plan contains provisions for a framework for orderly waste collection and treatment, and for penalizing offenders. In addition, city hall is currently planning two new facilities for recycling and shredding the waste before its transfer to landfills.

"Recycling potential will soon reach 90 percent. Therefore our goal is for only small amounts of waste to reach the landfills," said Shoni Goldberger, the Environment Ministry official charged with overseeing the Jerusalem district.

Goldberger remains skeptical, however, of the project's chances for success. "The municipality wants money to employ supervisors but hasn't presented plans for their activity. Nor has it begun preparing waste-collection trucks," he said.

"It's important to emphasize that this isn't just another clean-up operation. The goal here is to regulate the processing of construction waste," Goldberger says. "In this kind of situation, the municipality won't allow the construction of new homes unless it can prove that the waste from the work sites is disposed of in legally sanctioned locations," he said.

Commenting on the plan, Ami Kaplan, the municipality's project coordinator, said, "We intend to operate six inspection stations that will process construction waste, and to place cameras in sensitive areas to monitor possible violations."

Efforts at improving the processing of construction waste are currently being focused around the Old City, the capital's tourist epicenter.

"This area is considered a backyard in which waste can be discarded," said local resident Avitar Cohen.

He notes that an area in the Gehenom Valley was once a favored site for disposing of construction waste, but has recently been cleaned up and is now a popular tourist site.

Efforts are also underway to clean up the Mount of Olives and Kidron Stream areas.

Even if the new project turns out to be a success, authorities are aware that theirs is a Sisyphean task. Contractors and truck drivers will continue trying to avoid disposing construction waste at authorized locations, preferring instead to send it to the city's periphery for no extra fee.