Amman, Jordan Starts Recycling!
As the population of Amman, capital of Jordan increases, so does the amount of trash produced per day. The most recent estimate is that over the summer, the amount of garbage produced daily in Amman will increase to 750 tons.
In an effort to stem the tide, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) in cooperation with the Jordan Environment Society are spearheading a new initiative to recycle solid waste.
Until now, the capital’s garbage has been dumped in the Ghabawi landfill. The new Collection and Segregation of Solid Waste project will both introduce the recycling method into the handling of garbage, and expand the capacity of the city’s landfills.
The project is now in the first phase, and will feature 1,000 recycling bins in various districts of Amman. GAM officials have stated that there will be a promotional campaign throughout Amman to encourage citizens to participate in recycling.
The success of the project is crucial: If recycling catches on in the selected districts, more bins will be installed in other areas of the city.
Green Prophet, the Middle East green news blog covers other environmental issues in Jordan:
Jordanian Ministry of Environment Launches Eco-Cities of the Mediterranean Forum 2008
Controversial Red-Dead Sea Canal On Hold–But Why?
Jordan River Peace Park: Coming Soon?


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This is nice to hear about. That makes Jordan a step forward compared to Iran, for years they are talking about it, they haven’t managed fix the problem of recycling, and this is a dismissed issue, for some years they distributed two colors of plastic bags in small towns through the municipality, and that is the only thing done in this respect. No law inforcement, no education, no serious dission making for dealing with the issue in a propoer manner. The issue calls for all Middle East taking it into account and together solving the problems. Viva Jordan
Viva Middle East
It’s great to hear/ read about recycling, but I’ve spent the past few months trying to find information on these recycling centers or stations and can’t manage to find any.
wow what a great news
) plz tell us where could we recycle i have loads of paper so why to waste all the trees again and again plz answer back as soon as possible , thnx a lot
its really great to hear that as a environemt activist, but i was wondering…do you the parties involved in such recylcing projects??
You can’t find information on any recycling centers because apparently this project never followed through. It was proposed with high hopes and all but ended up to be nothing but empty words and obviously, this optimistic article. There is still no real implemented recycling program to the general public in Jordan, and if there is one, it is highly unknown of. I’ve spoken with an owner of a waste company who said so himself, that recycling in Jordan doesn’t work because of several reasons.
1. Mindsets – people don’t want to change their habits and prefer not to divide their waste into separate bins. Even if there is a recycling bin, they will probably throw their trash on the ground anyways.
2. The scavengers get most of the recyclables out of the garbage and ship them to foreign countries for the recycling process. It’s good they are able to recycle somehow, yet bad, because the CO2 spent just to transport these over borders cancels out the efforts. But the scavengers make a profit off of it. (My opinion, hire those scavengers and make a company out of them!)
3. Residence owners – some people own entire building districts and even entire streets, so they govern what happens on their streets. He said that even if the government instilled some sort of recycling program, these street owners can still choose not to have that program anywhere on their property.
I don’t know how much of this is actually true, but in my opinion, if a waste management guy in Jordan has his own mindset that the mindset in Jordan will never change, than that’s a sign right there that something is terribly wrong. However, with the right approach, I think we should put a bit more faith in Jordanians to be able to make a positive change in their lives, wouldn’t you say?
Well, when will the results come because if there are not recycling centers then we would have throw them away so do something or it would be your fault that you did not even try. If I were older then ten I would do something.