What happens to the contents of the trash bin once the collection truck leaves the street? Photographer Ziv Koren follows that journey in Derech HaZevel, an exhibition coming to Tel Aviv’s Habima Square from October 26 to November 6, 2026. Admission is free.
The exhibition moves to the square from the Environmental Education Center at Hiriya Recycling Park. Its 30 photographs document waste treatment and the people doing the work, marking 60 years since the founding of the Dan Region Sanitation Association, which operates the park. The Hebrew title can be read as “the way of waste.”
Behind the scenes at Hiriya
Koren’s photographs take viewers inside an operation that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hiriya receives nearly 25% of Israel’s municipal waste from about 30 local authorities in the central region. Alongside the machinery and mountains of discarded material, the images focus on the human moments of the work and the relationship between people, materials and the environment.
The title treats waste as evidence of how we live, reflecting values and consumption habits while opening a discussion about changing our relationship with the environment. Nir Ohayon is the exhibition’s artistic adviser and designer. It was curated by the team at Hiriya’s Environmental Education Center.
An alternative to November’s shopping rush
The move to Habima Square comes ahead of Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality’s “Lo Tzricha” initiative, a November alternative to the shopping promotions of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day. The exhibition considers what remains after a purchase: the waste it creates and the ways to reduce it through lower consumption, reuse, recycling and a circular economy.
The opening event is scheduled for Monday, October 26, at 2 p.m. in Habima Square, with Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai and Reuven Ladiansky, chair of the Dan Region Sanitation Association and a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo.
Ladiansky said:
The Dan Region Sanitation Association, which marks its 60th anniversary this year, offers the public a behind-the-scenes look at the extensive and fascinating work of waste treatment. The exhibition helps us understand the price we pay for the enormous quantities of waste we produce and seeks to offer a perspective on how important it is to curb consumer culture and on the need for reuse, recycling and a circular economy.
Sorting waste and recovering resources
Hiriya Recycling Park covers about 184 dunams (18.4 hectares) at the foot of Hiriya Hill. It receives waste from municipal green bins as well as about 30 private contractors. Materials are collected, sorted and separated before being transported to facilities for further treatment.
The association’s goals include improving service to local authorities and the efficiency of waste treatment, developing sorting and separation facilities for recycling and waste-to-energy recovery, and making use of resources in buried waste. Its Environmental Education Center also works to encourage public discussion and changes in waste and consumption habits.
Derech HaZevel at Habima Square, Tel Aviv | October 26-November 6, 2026 | Free admission.
