AMMAN — In Jordan, 1kg of waste is produced per capita per
day; about 2.2 -3 million tons of solid waste are generated each year, of which
300,000 tons are recycled, amounting to only 8-10 percent of the total waste
generated, according to the
Ministry of Environment.
اضافة اعلان
In March 2020
Jordan issued the Waste Management Framework Law and has since been working on
multiple fronts to increase awareness and improve infrastructure to reduce
waste and promote recycling habits that would benefit not only the environment,
but also the economy.
Under an agreement
signed on Friday between the
Jordan Restaurant Association (JRA) and the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the management and
recycling of waste from tourist restaurants, the JRA will take steps to raise
awareness among restaurant owners and employees on the importance of waste
management and recycling, JRA President Issam Fakher Eddin told
Jordan News on Saturday.
Faker Eddin said
the JRA will launch a campaign on social media outlets to promote the adoption
of the practice at the various facilities, and will conduct training programmes
for restaurant employees on managing and recycling methods. Moreover, the JRA will launch an ‘excellence
program’ to motivate restaurants on the use of special machines to upcycle
waste into useful material.
“Some restaurants
currently use those machines to turn waste into bio-fertilisers, and we (JRA)
will work on expanding the practice among all restaurants, and assist
restaurant owners on how to benefit from recycling, and even on how to make
profit from recycled waste,” Fakher Eddin said.
Bio-fertilizers
produced from recycling will be offered to small farms across the Kingdom for
free, according to Fakher Eddin.
Ahmad Omari, a
Public Relations manager at a leading tourist restaurant in Amman, told
Jordan
News that he was in favour of the move as it would reduce the amount of
food waste sent to landfills.
However, Omari said
that waste treatment would require extra work on the part of restaurants and
additional employees, which would increase expenditure at a time when many outlets
in the service industry are grappling with a slow business as a result of
Covid-19 pandemic. Omari said he was
obligated to reduce the number of his restaurant staff by 50 percent.
Under the
Waste Management Framework Law, commercial
establishments that produce more than 100 tons of waste per year are required
to perform source-sorting and recycling to reduce waste, according to Fakher
Eddin.
Meanwhile, and as work continues in Jordan on three main
fronts: infrastructure, legislation and awareness, authorities hope that the
percentage of recycled waste would increase from 10 to 40-50 percent by 2030.
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