CBRL workshop highlights continuity of recycling practices through time

AMMAN — The CBRL Amman Institute has recently organised a workshop led by Deputy Director of the CBRL Fatma Marii titled “From Past to Present: Recycling and Reusing Materials in Antiquity and Today.”

It was an opportunity to gather experts from different fields- archaeologists, cultural heritage specialists, architects, scientists, and modern recycling and reusing waste management specialists, and exchange their expertise.

The focus of different presentations was on old and modern practices and new challenges that experts face recently.

"Archaeological studies around the globe have found that recycling consumer products is not a modern behaviour but rather an ancient practice for different materials," Marii said, adding that when we study these old practices, we can appreciate the ingenuity of our ancestors and apply these lessons to enhance our current recycling systems. 

As a result, the legacy of recycling in antiquity inspires us to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, ensuring that "we preserve our planet for future generations", Mariiunderlined. 

The workshop was divided into three sessions:  The first session explored recycling materials in antiquities and presented examples and evidence from antiquities for recycling materials. 

The professor Zeidan Kafafi from Yarmouk University began this session by presenting "Recycling the Jordan Valley: An Example from Tell Damiya", while VictoriaSainsbury from University of Oxford presented "Recycling in the Roman Period is Nothing New."

Stephen Merkel presented the silver and gold coins recycling in the Viking Age, and Marii talked about "Recycling Glass in the Petra Byzantine Church".  

The second session included examples from Jordan for reusing old objects and buildings in modern timeswhen Samar AlSroor and Arch. Jehad AlMasaeiddiscussed on this theme during the presentation titled "Adaptive Reuse of the Ancient Site of Umm Al-Jimalfrom the Mandate Modern period to the Present". 

The third and the final session was about today's recycling of solid waste in Jordan. Engineers SabreenMheidat and Siwar Shatanawi from the Ministry of Environment in Jordan discussed the legal frameworks and strategies for waste management laws while architect Sanaa Taan presented "The GreenJO as the First Smart Application for Recycling in Jordan: Potentials and Obstacles". 

“Speakers and participants joined a roundtable discussion on the role of archaeological material science and oral history in understanding the past’s relationship with material recycle, reuse and waste management. Experts also compared recycling and its purpose between the past and the present. In the past, recycling was mainly used for economic reasons, while in modern times, it is used for environmental reasons,”Marii said.  

“The discussions emphasised the importance of community awareness for recycling products; conducting workshops and training for schoolchildren and young people to encourage the new generation to lead on these issues; and enforcing the laws and strategies for waste recycling legislation,” organisers underlined.  

"The recommendations are for blending traditional and modern practices to ensure the sustainable use of materials in heritage conservation while addressing contemporary waste management challenges. Nowadays, there are many initiatives for awareness campaigns for people to reduce, reuse and recycle their products, as people look for different solutions to reduce the impact of climate change on the Earth in the past century," Marii concluded.