Representatives from the public administration of Madaba in Jordan started their participation in the Med4Waste mentoring programme, which provides direct support and guidance to introduce new sustainable waste management practices in six local administrations in the Mediterranean region. The kick-off meeting of this collaboration took place online the last 29th March 2023 and marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the consortium of this ENI CBC Med capitalization project and the Madaba municipality to create a more sustainable and efficient waste management system for the city.

In comparison to the other five participants in the programme, Madaba has a different reality: this is a big city located 33 km from Amman, capital of Jordan, with population of 219,000 inhabitants across six major areas. In relation to their waste management infrastructure, the municipality owns 11 dump trucks, and its waste management system is operated by 280 workers in three shifts covering 24 hours a day. 

Madaba has implemented waste sorting strategies since 2019, mainly targeting the commercial cluster, and a pilot project targeting source separation in residential areas, affecting approximately 1,000 households. For example, the municipality has promoted initiatives like "Econeighbourhoods" Clean-Up campaigns, to promote awareness raising among the citizens. However, separation at source has not been implemented in households in the city: all waste fractions are collected and taken to the municipally owned sorting station. The possibility to learn about new options for dealing with municipal waste collection was one of the most interesting things that motivated their participation in the med4waste mentoring scheme.

The sorting station has 20 workers who separate recyclables from organic and non-recyclable materials. With the help of three compressing machines, recycled materials are transformed into blocks. A small cardboard recycling factory, funded by the municipality, is currently under construction.

The municipality has identified experiences with potential to improve its own waste management system that are already being carried out in other towns throughout the Mediterranean Region, and intends to use this mentoring process to learn more about them and see if they are applicable to its own reality. This includes the use of Geographic Information Systems, the improvement of the working system at the sorting station, the analysis of possible companies interested in end products from a circular economy perspective and the exploitation of the potential economic benefits that recycling and upcycling could bring to the citizens of Madaba.

Med4Waste mentoring scheme, under the coordination of MedCities, will provide expert guidance and advice on the most suitable waste management solutions tailored to their specific needs. Moreover, BusinessMed will offer mentorship to two local SMEs or start-ups to develop groundbreaking solutions that will aid in achieving the town's waste management objectives.