Trash Talk: Turning Waste Into Work in Jordan's Za'atari Refugee Camp
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
OXFAM DISCUSSION PAPER AUGUST 2017 TRASH TALK Turning waste into work in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp A cash for work volunteer in Za’atari camp delivers materials to Oxfam’s recycling centre. Photo: Alix Buck/Oxfam Syrian refugees have the capacity to provide key support for service delivery and the expertise to contribute to the expansion of new productive economic sectors. This paper highlights an innovative approach to solid waste management and income generation, and aims to promote further dialogue on the role that Syrians can play in the Jordanian economy. Oxfam Discussion Papers Oxfam Discussion Papers are written to contribute to public debate and to invite feedback on development and humanitarian policy issues. They are ‘work in progress’ documents, and do not necessarily constitute final publications or reflect Oxfam policy positions. The views and recommendations expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Oxfam. For more information, or to comment on this paper, email Soman Moodley at [email protected] www.oxfam.org 1 INTRODUCTION ‘Adapting to life as a refugee here was extremely difficult for us at first. We weren’t used to living in tents, to the unforgiving environment. In those days there was garbage everywhere – along with the insects and other pests that come with it. It was not easy.’ Jasem Al-Wrewir, Team Leader in Oxfam’s cash for work recycling project in Za’atari camp. When people began to flee the violence in Syria in 2011, hundreds of thousands arrived in neighbouring Jordan, with many finding safety in Za’atari refugee camp. Uncertain about their future, and with no prospect of returning home, refugees had very limited opportunities to support themselves. Back then, rubbish was everywhere. While waste facilities in the form of mobile ‘dumpsters’ were present throughout the camp, they overflowed to the point that there was nowhere but the ground to throw rubbish. The regular aid distributions of food and essential items, while crucial to meeting refugees’ immediate needs, were in part causing the waste problem. Local landfill managers in the nearby town of Mafraq informed Oxfam that the amount of waste transferred to their landfill sites had tripled.1 Despite the fact that the recycling business in Jordan is growing, it is estimated that only 10 percent of recyclables are actually collected.2 Oxfam – by working with the local community – sought to turn waste management into an opportunity to address pressing social, environmental and economic needs. In 2015, Oxfam began piloting an innovative recycling project with the aim of mitigating the waste management issues in the camp while providing livelihood opportunities to refugees. The development of the pilot was very much a process of learning and adapting. Drawing on the know-how of both Syrian refugees and Jordanian host communities, and reaching out to the camp community, Oxfam persisted. As of 2017, the project has expanded to collecting, sorting and processing waste from across the whole camp. Today, close to 80,000 Syrian refugees make their home in Za’atari camp and rows of caravans now stand in place of the tents where families first sheltered. Jordan provides safe haven to over 660,000 Syrians registered as refugees with UNHCR across the country.3 This has added pressure to services and the job market. While the Jordanian government has committed to providing work permits for some refugees, practical opportunities to work and support their families remain limited. This project demonstrates how the collective expertise of Syrians and Jordanians can be used to expand new productive sectors within Jordan’s economy – creating new jobs rather than displacing people from existing ones. It is essential that work continues to support longer-term job opportunities for refugees who live in Za’atari camp. There are signs that steps are being taken to ease restrictions on economic activities between camp residents and those in neighbouring towns and communities. This is essential to ensuring that refugees can lift themselves out of poverty and become more self- 4 reliant. 2 Trash Talk: Turning waste into work in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp 2 THE PILOT PHASE Between August 2015 and June 2016, Oxfam initiated a recycling project as a pilot in District 7 of Za’atari (one of the 12 administrative districts that the camp is divided into). The concept was simple: families sort their waste and refugee cash for work volunteers collect it from each household and deliver it to the transfer area, where it is further separated and processed.5 It is then sold to companies who trade in reusable materials, with profits reinvested back into the project. Towards the end of 2016 and early 2017, Oxfam began to collaborate with the aid agencies Japanese Emergency NGO (JEN) and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) on these collecting and sorting activities. This was also done in close coordination with UNHCR and UNICEF. It is important to remember that when Oxfam started this work, it was not legal for Syrian refugees to work in Jordan. As well as improving their environment, the project therefore provided a much-needed means of income and sense of purpose for participating camp residents. As part of its community outreach efforts, Oxfam produced easy-to-read and highly visual explanations of the recycling process for camp residents. Photo: Oxfam Trash Talk: Turning waste into work in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp 3 The recycling programme’s success was entirely reliant on the participation and buy-in of the Za’atari camp community. The team adopted a public outreach campaign, encouraging households to separate their dry waste (such as cartons and cans) from their wet waste (like vegetable scraps), and more and more community members began to get involved. If people didn’t sort their rubbish in their homes, then the team would have received polluted recyclables which could not be sold. Every day, trolley workers engaged through cash for work collected dry recyclable waste from homes, a school and two supermarkets and took it to the Oxfam recycling centre. Collection only ever stopped when flooding made it impossible for the trolleys to pass. At the recycling centre, separation specialists (also engaged through cash for work) then sorted materials into more specific groupings, with plastics requiring the most attention given the various types and colours.6 The role of women engaging camp residents in community outreach and men working with trolleys in door-to-door household collection proved to be very effective. It allowed broad-based community participation in the project, provided an income to refugees, and increased the percentage of recyclables separated and collected at household level. Usually, the role of cash for work programmes in refugee camps is to provide a supply of cash and liquidity that contributes to short-term resilience and improved functioning of markets.7 However, many of the cash for work volunteers told Oxfam that their work came to be about more than just the income – it was also important to them to be able to protect the camp and act as stewards of the local environment. The Oxfam team reflected that if it had used other means of separation and collection (i.e. if it had not involved the community to this extent) the recycling centre would not have received as many recyclables as it did. The pilot phase ran for a total of 40 weeks and diverted over 80 tonnes of recycled materials from landfill from one district. The volume of waste collected by the contractor for disposal in landfill in 2016 was lower than it had been the previous year. This can partly be attributed to the shift away from in-kind aid distributions to cash transfer programmes in the camp, but it is also due to the fact that, starting from January 2016, Oxfam’s recycling project was up and running.8 Over time, and thanks to combined Syrian and Jordan expertise, Oxfam’s team improved processing methods and began to engage with potential buyers outside the camp. For instance, Oxfam purchased a shredder which meant that discarded bottles and containers could be processed into a recycled product with 50 percent higher value than unprocessed materials.9 Given the interest that neighbouring traders had in buying the recycled plastics and cardboard, Oxfam also purchased a compressor to bundle the material into ready-to-transport bales. At this 4 Trash Talk: Turning waste into work in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp stage, the pilot was very much a process of testing, learning and adapting, while steadily gaining in efficiency. Despite the challenges, the team could already see the change in the district: there was little rubbish in the streets and the recycling centre started to fill up with recyclables.10 The trolley workers and community mobilizers conveyed to Oxfam staff how they felt that they were engaging people in a meaningful way, and appreciated regaining their productivity and ability to provide for their families. Given the combination of these factors, Oxfam realized the potential for scale-up. The poster reads dawerha wa estafeed in Arabic, meaning ‘recycle and see the benefits’. Photo: Oxfam Trash Talk: Turning waste into work in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp 5 Box 1: The power of combined Syrian and Jordanian know-how Jasem Al-Wrewir fled from Syria to Za’atari camp in Jordan in 2013, leaving behind his waste disposal business in Damascus where he managed six landfill sites and 200 employees. Since early 2015, Jasem has been a Team Leader in Oxfam’s cash for work recycling project, working alongside Wissam Al-Sharafat, a Jordanian engineer and Recycling Officer with Oxfam.