Ne'ot Hovav

Ramat Hovav (רָמַת חוֹבָב), new official name Ne'ot Hovav, is an industrial zone in southern Israel and the site of Israel's main hazardous waste disposal facility. Ramat Hovav Industrial Zone is the locus of 19 chemical factories, including Makhteshim Agan, a pesticide plant; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, a pharmaceuticals plant; Israel Chemicals, a bromine plant.

In July 2022, Erez Badash was appointed as the head of the local council.

Plants

 * Aviv Recycling Plant- specializes in recycling used plastic bottles. The plant enables the recycling of the bottles into plastic particles which can be used into creating new plastic bottles.


 * Adama Agricultural Solutions- the plant manufactures and develops plant protection products. The company's products can be found in over 100 countries worldwide, and it is one of Israel's ten biggest companies.


 * Taas Certificates- A subsidiary of Elbit. Establishing A complex of almost 13,000 acres in Ramat Beka (area attached to Neot Hovev). Currently under construction, expected to run in 2025.


 * Orot Yosef- Power plant, manufactures electricity through natural gas. The plant has nine turbines whose total power is about 1,200 megawatts.


 * Elcon Recycling Center- Provides waste management services.


 * Energix Renewable Energies- Publicly traded company. Deals in establishing, operating, maintaining, and managing electricity from renewable sources.


 * Ecosol Israel- Operating incinerators for eliminating concentrations of organic waste.
 * Gaz Gal- Deals in supplying home and industrial gas.


 * GAS TECHNOLOGIES O.B. LTD- supplying various gases for different industries, including pharma, chemistry, microelectronics, and more. The facility is used for storing gases.


 * Globus- Provides logistical services for private and business clients.


 * Green Soil- A site for biological treatment of sludge with volatile pollutants.


 * Dor Ecology- Part of Dor Chemicals group. Operates in the field of recycling and solvent recovery, as well as waste recycling and waste recovery.


 * The Environmental Services Company Ltd- A governmental company designed to treat toxic waste by recycling.


 * Wavelength Pharmaceuticals- Creates active pharmaceutical ingredients for the pharma industry.


 * Teva-Tech (Teva-Asia)- Produces chemicals and pharmaceuticals, hospital products, and veterinary products.


 * Kolbogas- Deals in supplying home and industrial gas.


 * Luxembourg-Pamol Inc.- produces chemicals for agriculture, biotechnology, and the industry.


 * Mapi Pharma- Specializes in the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical substances, including active pharmaceuticals.


 * Metal Tech Ltd.- produces Tungsten and Tungsten carbide, which is used as a raw material for creating gard metals, cutting tools, ceramic vests, hardware tools, light bulbs, and more. About 70% of the factory's products are exported to factories abroad, including factories of large manufacturers such as Sikorsky and Boeing.


 * Mifaley Tovala LTD. -A subsidiary of ICL. Provides logistical services for ICL.


 * Maxima- Air separation center. Provides oxygen, nitrogen, and additional gases for industrial and medical services.


 * Efrat- Energy Infrastructures' terminal. Used for storing and transporting fuels.


 * Negev Natural Gas- Establishment, maintenance, and distribution of natural gas via underground infrastructure.


 * Israel Natural Gas Lines- A government company for the transmission of natural gas at high pressure.


 * Sela- The company produces a variety of concrete products. The Neot Hovav factory is used to produce concrete products for infrastructure and construction.


 * Oz & Hadar- Growing and slaughtering chickens. The Neot Hovav factory is used for recycling proteins for products leftovers.


 * Phibro Animal Health Corp. Ltd- A global company engaged in the development, production, and marketing of intermediate products for the health and nutrition of animals, to produce healthier food for humans.


 * Fridenson Logistic Services- Publicly traded company. Operates in logistics and international transportation.


 * The Middle East Tube Company- The company operates in the field of manufacturing steel pipes for sewage, water, fuel, and gas infrastructures.


 * Trans-Israel pipeline- The Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline is used to transport crude oil from the Port of Ilan to Ashkelon. In the territory of the council, there is a strip of traffic to the company's infrastructure.


 * Rad Concrete- The company engaged in the production and supply of ready-made concrete and mortar for the construction industry.


 * Rinkam Company (Israel)- Logistics hub for storing and distribution of chemicals.


 * Israeli Railways-  Cargo terminal for Israel Railways. The terminal serves as the main terminal for storing hazardous materials arriving by train. Contains advanced safety systems for the treatment of HMS incidents and is used as storage for large companies that contract with Israel Railways for transportation by train.


 * Ramat Negev 120 MW Power Station- A power plant that produces energy for plants in Neot Hovav.


 * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems- A government company engaged in the development and production of weapons, including missiles and active defense systems.


 * Shoval-Nesher Recycling And Recovery- Shoval Nesher is a partnership between Nesher Cement and Shoval Recycling and Recovery. Shoval Nesher deals with energy recycling and recovery.


 * Beit Ganzim- Provides document archiving services for the business sector as well as the public sector.


 * Bromine Compounds Ltd- A subsidiary of ICL. Produces one-third of the global bromine production.

Environmental and health hazards
Many of the factories in Ramat Hovav use hazardous materials and evaporation ponds that pollute the air and leach cancer-causing chemicals into the soil and water. Initially, the toxic waste facility was privately run. According to Israeli environmentalist Alon Tal, the waste was not pretreated before transport to the site. Storage facilities were weak, barrels often rusted, toxic residues were unlabeled and reactive materials were stored near containers of cyanide. The facility was closed down repeatedly in the wake of accidents.

Ten years after its establishment, outcrops of the chalk under Ramat Hovav showed fractures potentially leading to serious soil and groundwater contamination in the future.

In 1997, when an explosion occurred in barrels storing organophosphorus pesticides, the residents of nearby villages were not warned and time passed before they were evacuated. In 2003, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel filed a suit petitioning the government to provide health services in the village. The same year, the Arab-Jewish environmental justice organization BUSTAN worked with local Bedouin leaders to construct a health clinic out of sustainable materials in order to highlight health concerns in the region. A year later, the government built a health clinic on the other side of the village.

In 1998, it cost about sixty-five dollars to hire a driver to dump a five-ton truck of waste in the West Bank but more than eleven thousand dollars to dispose of waste at Ramat Hovav. In 1999, al-Quds al-Arabi reported that Israeli companies were engaging in illegal dumping of toxic waste in the West Bank to avoid the cost of treatment and transport to Ramat Hovav.

A 2004 study commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Health found a high rate of birth defects among children living in the vicinity.

In 2007, the head of the Ramat Hovav council, Giora Meyuhas, accused the government corporation that manages the site, the Environmental Services Company, of breaking the law and polluting the environment. Sarov said that the concentration of so many industries in one place means that if there is a large explosion, not simply local Negev residents but all of Israel and many of its Middle Eastern neighbors will suffer severe contamination akin to that of a nuclear explosion.

Hazardous materials transport


The facility is accessed from Highway 40 and would eventually also be reachable via Highway 6, which is planned to be extended to the area. Much of the hazardous waste transported to the site from the rest of the country reaches it via an Israel Railways rail line (a branch off of the main line to Beersheba) that terminates at a freight rail terminal located inside the industrial zone. Before the branch line was completed in 2004, hazardous materials bound for Ramat Hovav were transloaded onto trucks at the Be'er Sheva North Railway Station, a fact that delayed the approval of new real estate development in the vicinity of Be'er Sheva North due to the risk of hazardous materials spills occurring during the transloading process.

Solar park
In December 2014, the largest photovoltaic power plant of Israel's solar sector was inaugurated in Ramat Hovav, over the previously hazardous dumping site. The 37.5 MW project is owned by Energix Renewable Energies, and was Constructed by Belectric using CdTe photovoltaic modules based on thin-film technology, manufactured by U.S. company First Solar, making it the country's largest PV power plant and one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East.