Waste
problems plague Jordan as its municipal waste quantities continue to
rise from 2.6 million tonnes in 2014 to almost 3 million tonnes in
2017 and so on.
Europe
has been hailed as the recycling role model but despite recycling
rates of over 50 percent in countries like Germany and Sweden, the
world still labours under excessive paper, plastic, metal and food
waste that is easily recyclable.
This
barrage of waste not only pollutes the environment and hampers
natural resources, but also eats up a gigantic amount of space in the
form of landfills.
Jordan
is bringing a glimmer of hope in these dark times of environmental
degradation with its holistic approach towards waste management. It’s
investing in waste reduction, waste to energy which in turn, is
generating employment and promoting resource-friendly practices and
helping underprivileged communities.
The
famous sea-side city of Aqaba junks 150 tonnes of solid waste per
day, including those of hotels and restaurants. By partnering with
European Union and UN Environment through the EU SWITCH Med
Programme, the Association for Energy, Water and Environment, Jordan
has worked with 15 hotels and 17 restaurants to access waste damage
and find solutions to reduce its impact.
High-end
hotels such as the InterContinental Aqaba Resort, Movenpick Aqaba,
Double Tree by Hilton and Kempinski Aqaba have fully supported the
cause.
The
hotel staff has been expertly trained in waste management practices
and have been working rigorously and tirelessly to cut back waste by
25 percent.
Shrinking
waste volumes is done through simple practices such as revised menus,
optimum food management, smaller buffet plates to curb food wastage,
using perishable items efficiently and recycling all metals and
plastics in the best way.
Hotels
pay a fixed tax for waste collection based on the area built and the
scale of operations. Now the Aqaba Economic Zone Authority is
incentivizing good waste management by reducing collection fees for
hotels who manage it optimally.
The
waste management project in Aqaba is helping to train local community
and empower women by teaching them to produce craft from recyclable
objects such as tins, scrap and metal. This has a two pronged benefit
of creating jobs, reutilizing and recycling waste and as an effect,
ameliorating the land fill strain.
These same women are now educated and empowered enough to manufacture and sell their handmade items in a marketplace across major hotels in Jordan.
A
lot has been achieved by the project, even if it may look trivial on
the surface. In a short span of time, this project has
institutionalized good waste practices into the community as a whole
and developed a responsible, environmentally conscious,
self-sufficient and empowered citizenry that inspires the world.