Residents say Amman cleaning efforts paying off despite rise in volume of waste

AMMAN — The capital’s resident say the Greater Amman Municipality’s (GAM) efforts to enhance the city’s cleanliness are fruitful, despite an increase in the volume of generated waste.

Amal Issa, an employee at an Amman-based telecommunications company, said she sees sanitation workers and garbage collection vehicles working “like bees” in over five neighbourhoods she passes by on her way to work every day.

“The only delays in garbage collection happen during snowstorms, when the roads are blocked,” the Jubeiha resident told The Jordan Times.

Marka resident Mohammad Ramahi agreed on the improved performance, noting that restaurants and butcheries must dump the remains of meat and discarded food items in special covered garbage containers separate from those of households.

“Food remains tend to smell and attract stray cats in neighbourhoods near restaurants,” he said.

But for Omar Qteishat, there are three garbage containers instead of one near his house in Jabal Hussein, as the “large” number of Syrian refugees who recently settled in the area has led to an increase in the amount of generated waste.

Handling the increasing amounts of garbage and boosting public awareness on waste management are two major challenges facing GAM, Basem Tarawneh, deputy director for districts and environment affairs at the municipality, told The Jordan Times Monday.

He highlighted “a highly noticeable improvement” in the cleanliness of the city despite the growing volume of collected waste, which increased from 2,200 tonnes per day two years ago to 3,000 tonnes daily nowadays.

The number hit a “shocking and unprecedented” amount of 4,700 tonnes the night before Eid Al Fitr this year.

Tarawneh attributed this “very high” volume of collected garbage to the increase in the number of residents of the city, which unofficial data estimate to be around 4 million, in addition to the improvement in GAM’s capacities.

He noted that GAM added 72 garbage trucks to its fleet this year, in addition to the 72 trucks added two years ago. 

In addition, the municipality appointed a number of Jordanian sanitation workers this year to make up for the shortage in staff, whose number now stands at 4,500.

Nonetheless, residents are “strategic partners” in the waste management process, as they are asked to put garbage only at the allocated areas and to prevent littering, according to Tarawneh, who added that GAM seeks to promote this culture through lectures and brochures.   

“Sorting and recycling garbage can reduce the amount of collected garbage by half,” he said.