"Use and throw" culture

We have a new fridge in the house. We bought a used one through Yad2 for 500 ILS, which is about 1000 SEK. The landlord said that she wanted the old fridge back, since it was hers and we just borrowed it, but Yoram convinced her that it is too old to waste any more money on. Now I suddenly had another direct encounter with an aspect of this society that I find very difficult to accept. I have previously discussed the Israeli habit of throwing garbage where they stand and in this case I touch the same subject. In Sweden you would have taken this old fridge to the nearest recycling station, where it would have been taken care of according to all rules and regulations, and every little piece would be put into use again thanks to our excellent recycling culture.

Here, instead Yoram had the carriers simply putting the fridge out in the street, next to the garbage container, claiming that it is garbage (very big garbage though) and that there is really not any option, because there is nowhere to dispose these things. And then he dared me to bet on how long the fridge will stay there, because obviously there are garbage collectors that pick up this kind of stuff and use what they can out of them.

Even Yoram was surprised, when already within an hour a guy arrived and lifted the big fridge all by himself into his station wagon, secured it with some rope and took off. This is a phenomenon that of course develops anywhere when an option is not provided by the state, but after all, I cannot avoid immediately drawing the connection to the path down in the valley below the house, where old things and garbage are dumped all the time, which of course causes irritation in both of us. I am imagining the day when we walk there and stumble upon the old fridge, stripped of its valuable parts. On the other hand I cannot blame Yoram for his action. Better that someone gets to use whatever possible from the fridge, than himself tugging the fridge down to the beautiful valley below and just dumping it there. Besides that, I can only pray that the guy in the station wagon is responsible. I guess it takes more than 60 years after all to develop the "perfect" society...