Ammon News - by Omar Obeidat | The Jordan Times

AMMAN –– Hassan Hourani spent hours near the Interior Ministry Circle in central Amman, urging motorists not to throw trash from their cars.

The university student was accompanied by 11 others to make the job of sanitation workers easier, he said.

“Our goal is to make Amman cleaner and to our appreciation for the hard work sanitation workers do,” Hourani told The Jordan Times.

He noted that a group of 12 students from various universities launched the initiative to distribute small plastic bags to drivers and passengers in an attempt to put an end to littering in the capital’s streets.

“Amman used to be known as a clean city, and we want to restore this image,” he said, while handing out plastic bags and slips of paper urging people to observe cleanliness.

Hourani and his colleagues formed a group called Ahl Al Himmeh (people of resolve) for voluntary work, hoping other volunteers would join their initiative.

They plan to distribute thousands of recyclable plastic bags over a period of few days, he noted.

Official figures indicate that each individual generates one kilogramme of solid waste every day in Jordan, while 16,000 tonnes of solid waste are generated daily throughout the country. In addition, 400 compactors are used for compressing garbage, half of which are for plastics.

In July last year, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) launched the “Amman Baituna” (Amman is our home) campaign, under which 100,000 bags were distributed to motorists in Amman to discourage littering.

GAM registered over 27,000 littering violations during the first half of this year, which were captured by surveillance cameras installed in cars that tour the city’s streets.

Motorists and passengers are fined JD10-JD20 for littering under Article 37, Paragraph 12 of Traffic Law Number 49 for the year 2008, according to GAM.