AMMAN - The environment and local community in Azraq will receive a boost thanks to a paper recycling project inaugurated on Monday.
The project will process paper and cardboard waste in the area and address the accumulation of waste paper generated by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature's (RSCN) Manual Packaging Workshop, as well as paper collected from various RSCN offices, according to the embassy of the Czech Republic in Amman.
The $45,300 plant was opened yesterday by Ivana Holoubkova, ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Kingdom, whose government contributed $25,000, while the remainder was secured by the RSCN.
"This project is an example of fruitful cooperation between our two friendly countries. Many thanks to the RSCN and Wild Jordan for their relentless efforts in bringing this project to life," Holoubkova said at the event, according to an embassy statement.
The Czech Republic's contribution to the project included funding for a paper-shredding machine, an electric dryer, a cardboard-cutting machine, various moulds, a gas stove, containers and tanks, among other equipment.
Azraq Governor Adnan Otoum, RSCN Director General Yahya Khaled, Wild Jordan Director Chris Johnson and local community leader Sheikh Mohammad Shoshan attended the launch in Azraq, some 100 kilometres east of Amman.
The initiative, which employs 15 local women, will tackle increasing paper waste accumulation in Azraq and help keep the area's environment clean, Khaled said.
"The women employed in this project will re-utilise the paper waste from RSCN's packaging project and produce a diversity of marketable products such as recycled paper, cardboard that may be reused at the manual packaging project, handicrafts and various decoration items that use recycled paper as a base for their production," he added.
Khaled noted that the project contributes to poverty alleviation in the Azraq region, and will also enhance recycling awareness among the local community and greater society.
The initiative is the latest in a series of local development projects in the Kingdom supported by the Czech Republic.
Previous initiatives included a country kitchen where women can produce food for sale; a project to rehabilitate a spring to increase the efficiency of water use for irrigation in a rural community in the Jordan Valley and an agricultural education centre in Ajloun, according to the embassy.
By Hani Hazaimeh
© Jordan Times 2010
