On the unbearable ease of photocopying documents

Yesterday, April 22, 2012, the “Green Globe” awards were presented to individuals and companies leading the country’s environmental vision. At 8:00 p.m. yesterday, lights began going out in 22 Israeli cities to raise environmental awareness.
Against the backdrop of “Earth Hour,” an objectionable local practice stands out: it increases environmental pollution and energy waste and, worse, teaches environmental indifference. The cause lies in the ready availability of home and office document-copying machines. Although environmental protection calls for less pollution, less paper waste that causes massive deforestation, and reduced use of printer inks and toners whose manufacture contributes to atmospheric pollution and damage to natural resources, Israel actually encourages increased use of copying machines.
Examples abound; here are two. The Ministry of Justice launched “Net HaMishpat,” ostensibly a system centered on a paperless digital case file. In reality, filing documents in court, such as statements of claim and defense, now requires an additional copy of every document, which is scanned and shredded into the wastebasket. The file then reaches the judge digitally; often dismayed by the enormous volume of material to read on a computer screen, the judge asks a judicial assistant to print everything again. Thus another copy is printed, creating two unnecessary additional copies of the same document beyond the large number already printed in the “old world” before Net HaMishpat. Multiplying these two copies by all the claims, defenses and applications filed in court produces millions of needlessly printed pages, in a scandalous waste of the Earth’s resources. How sad that this policy comes from the State of Israel through its Ministry of Justice.

The Courts Administration’s instruction reads as follows:
“State of Israel
Administration of the Courts 
Filing court procedural documents as photocopies
Following the court system’s transition to Net HaMishpat software, procedural documents filed with
the court are scanned into the case file in the computerized system.
Scanning and destruction of court documents are governed by the Archives Regulations (Retention and Disposal of Court
and Religious Court Files), 5746–1986, and the Evidence Regulations (Photographic Copies), 5730–1969.
Under these regulations, a litigant files the procedural document with the court on paper, the court scans
the documents, and ten days after scanning the documents are destroyed.
We therefore ask you to note that procedural documents must be filed only as photocopies, not as originals,
and that court registries will not accept originals and will ask the filer to prepare a photocopy for filing
with the court.”

It is time for awareness of conservation and environmental protection to reach each of us in Israel in 2012, our educational institutions and businesses, and above all the Israeli government and its ministries.
When will the day come when the “Green Globe” award is given to the Israeli government?