AMMAN — Scrap and can collectors only manage to collect
around 10 percent of the estimated containers in Jordan, amounting to some 3.6
to JD4 million in recycled waste. A new app hopes to help people cash in on the
remaining 90 percent while helping eliminate waste.
اضافة اعلان
Canzi Recycling hopes to be the first app of its kind that
allows people to safely donate their household waste and redeem points for
prizes.
The idea for the app came from Mokarram Suliman, who told
Jordan News that “What keeps us unable to benefit from the remaining 90 percent
is that we do not sort our waste from the original source, from the home. The
idea was to turn this process into an easy-to-use application, where individuals
could collect their home waste.”
He added that every household produces trash or waste, which
has material value. However, another problem lies with how municipalities deal with
waste containers. While there are people who search containers for cans and
scrap, according to the local administration law; anyone who takes anything
from waste containers is considered to be stealing public funds, which is a
crime punishable by law.
“If an individual leaves waste in its original condition;
that is, containing a residual of food, it is treated as waste as stipulated by
the Waste Law and must be transported by a special vehicle (compressor),”
Suliman said. “But if an individual disposes of the food residual, the waste
becomes legally transportable by any means of transport, as it does not carry
any disease or infection according to the new health law and the new
environmental law."
When Suleiman was asked about the way the application works,
he said that after separation, the app will ask individuals to keep their waste
until they have a certain amount. After they have collected, for example 5kg of
aluminum; a representative from the application comes by to collect it.
"All these steps remain preserved on the individual's
account in the application, and he takes in return a set of points” to be used
in exchange for a set of prizes shown on the app, according to Suliman.
"If the individual wants it to be transferred to cash,
this is done quite simply, as the money is transferred to the individual’s
electronic wallet.”
The goals that Suliman seeks to achieve are many, and they
do not center only on profits. “The first thing we will change through this
application is the general stereotypical behavior and the random dumping of
waste,” he said.
The app may have come just in time as
Jordan News previously
reported that the Ministry of Environment
recently announced higher penalties for littering in public spaces and
institutions. People can now be fined up to JD1,000.
Suliman added: “We have done a lot of studies to work on
this application, and the first steps were the consultations that we took from
government agencies such as the Ministry of Environment, the Greater Amman
Municipality, and the municipalities and the consultants working in them.”
“The next step is to launch the app to be available to
everyone at the beginning of next month, then we will work to reach companies
that produce more waste and dispose of it in the usual way.”
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