As of 2007, Hiriya was housing the largest waste transfer station in Israel. Doron Saphir was Hiriya's chairman. Three recycling plants operated at the foot of the mound, grinding building waste into gravel and dry organic matter into mulch, and a patented mechanical biological treatment demonstration facility where municipal solid waste was sorted utilising the properties of water. The facility was a form of materials recovery facility including upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digesters for the provision of biogas, which was in turn used to generate renewable energy utilising gas engines.