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Ammon News - by Hana Namrouqa | The Jordan Times

AMMAN — The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) has launched a national project to combat littering in forests and encourage picnickers to collect their trash, conservationists said on Saturday.

Under the project, the RSCN will target three forest parks frequented by picnickers by installing garbage bins, distributing trash bags and raising the awareness of visitors and local communities on the need to protect natural sites, RSCN Director General Yehya Khaled said.

Implemented by the RSCN and financed by the USAID-funded Public Action in Water, Energy and Environment Project, the project will apply social marketing as a method to achieve behavioural change, Khaled noted.

“The project builds on the success of a recent initiative implemented in Dibbeen Forest Reserve, where the number of picnickers using garbage bags to collect their trash increased after the society launched an anti-littering campaign,” he said.

The three parks where the new project will be implemented are Al Shulah in Irbid Governorate, Al Barrah in Tafileh Governorate and the Scandinavian Forest in Balqa Governorate, according to the RSCN.

“Studies showed that while the three target areas receive huge numbers of visitors, they lack enough garbage bins, which are also installed far from picnicking sites,” Khaled said.

Under the project, creatively designed trash containers will be installed across the parks and garbage bags will be distributed to picnickers when they enter.

Behavioural change studies that visitors often abandon their litter after picnicking due the lack of garbage bins where they can dispose of solid waste, according to environment experts.

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.

Environment ministry figures indicate that plastic bags are dumped in alarming numbers in Jordan and pose environmental and health hazards. Each individual uses an average of 1.5 plastic bags per day and 500 plastic bags per year.

A total of 3 billion plastic bags are used in the country annually, only 20 per cent of which find their way to landfills. The rest end up in the streets polluting the environment.