From 1950,
waste disposal basically involved open dumping and
burning without complying with the proper regulations,
while in the beginning of the 1980s, awareness of the
need to establish sanitary landfills increased. Until now,
Jordan has relied only on landfills to store the waste. Recently,
numerous recycling initiatives have been implemented
for various components of the solid waste stream
at different stages of the waste management process in
Jordan. These initiatives have mainly been established by
the private sector and as a general rule the process is not
well managed by the state. Recycling activities at times
are undertaken before the solid waste reaches the final
disposal sites for the separation of recyclable materials,
paper, metals and plastics; at the disposal sites much of
the work is carried out by children and young person’s
acting as scavengers. These operations lack in regulation
and environmental auditing and workers are often exposed
to hazardous conditions.
Despite the intensive efforts that are directed to the
recycling and recovery of solid wastes, landfills remain
and will remain an integral part of most SWM strategies
in the country. The decomposable and recyclable materials
in the MSW is about 86%, while the remainder is
inert (Figure 1), the major fraction is organic, which
implies a high moisture content value, as expected in a
developing country where food residuals are the major
component of the solid waste stream [5].