USAID Recycling in Jordan facilitates interventions that aim to enhance informal waste pickers’
accessibility to recyclable materials and improve their segregation practices and valorization activities
through an integration model with the municipal SWM sector in Amman. The Waste Picker Training
and Certification Program was designed to improve their technical knowledge and soft skills that
increase their potential engagement into municipal recycling programs and formal collection schemes
that guarantee regular access to waste. Nine technical and soft skills modules were delivered to
different categories of informal waste pickers over an intensive course of five-day sessions for each
cohort. Furthermore, the training program was implemented under close cooperation with Jordan
Environment Society, which is a non-government environment organization that was established in
1988. The society has a solid experience in the Jordanian environment sector particularly in fields of
environmental awareness, training, social outreach, and paper recycling activities with public and
private entities in Amman.
The three training cohorts of the program targeted around 18 to 20 male and female waste pickers.
All the participants of the male and female waste pickers were approached and selected by the Jordan
Environment Society. The 11 female waste pickers attended the third cohort are working as sorters
in their houses and support their male family members who are engaged in the waste picking and
recycling activities.