Solid Waste Environment Issues

Fund to finance environment-friendly projects

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - The Ministry of Environment on Sunday launched the Jordan Environment Fund (JEF), which starts today receiving applications from parties planning to start eco-projects.

The JEF seeks to support socio-economic projects that improve the environment, rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of the country’s natural resources, by partly financing the ventures, Minister of Environment Taher Shakhshir said on Sunday.

“The fund currently has JD4 million. Deadline for receiving applications for funding projects is August 31. In September, the proposed projects will be evaluated for feasibility, sustainability and conformity with the ministry’s goals,” Shakhshir told reporters during a press conference to announce the JEF launch.

Through soft loans, the fund will finance 75 per cent of the cost of projects proposed by the private sector and up to 95 per cent of the cost of projects proposed by the public sector, the minister said.

However, “the fund will finance eco-projects only this year through grants instead of soft loans to encourage institutions to apply”, Shakhshir announced, noting that cycles for financing projects will take place twice a year.

He said the fund will distribute this year JD1 million to projects that address Jordan’s pressing environment issues, including the treatment of industrial wastewater, solid waste management, energy conservation and renewable energy sources as well as environment-related small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The fund is partly financed through the earnings of projects under which carbon credits are sold to industrial countries as part of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, which oblige industrial countries to support the implementation of environment-friendly projects in developing countries.

In 2009, Jordan received 1.5 million euros in return for selling carbon credits from the Aqaba Thermal Power Station, the first Jordanian venture registered as a CDM project.

Shakhshir added that the fund is also financed from the fines of environment violations, fees collected from testing radiation levels of junk pieces imported from Iraq as well as fees from environment impact assessments.

Definition of Solid Waste - Environmental Justice Issues ...

Coinciding with the June 2011 proposed revisions to the definition of solid waste, USEPA proposed for public notice and comment an "Environmental Justice Analysis" of the impact of the October 2008 rulemaking. The Environmental Justice Analysis looked critically at whether the 2008 rule accomplished the goals of resource conservation and waste reduction "…at the expense of one of the other fundamental goal(sic) of RCRA: protecting human health and the environment from hazardous waste management."

The Environmental Justice Analysis was performed by USEPA in response to a Sierra Club petition that argued the 2008 rule was not protective of minority and low-income communities. The Analysis used a 6-step process, implemented in 2010 to evaluate the 2008 rule; the Analysis, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register alongside the July 2011 proposed rulemaking, resulted in five significant findings:

Hazardous secondary material recycling does pose significant potential hazards. Adverse human health impacts from hazardous secondary materials recycling has increased as a result of the 2008 rule relaxing regulation of materials subject to reclamation. Many of the communities potentially impacted by the risk of adverse impacts are minority and low-income communities, and in some cases the populations potentially impacted are disproportionately minority and/or low income. Underlying vulnerabilities traditionally associated with minority and low income communities exacerbate the potential adverse impacts of the rule. USEPA can take steps to prevent and mitigate the potential adverse impacts on minority and low-income communities.

Additional critical findings determined that the 2008 rule failed to include measures to ensure compliance with the rule:

created incentives for facilities to accumulate large volumes of hazardous secondary materials; created increased potential for releases during storage and transportation of materials; and failed to include standards neacessary for the control of wastes during storage, containment and interstate transport of wastes destined for recycling.

The findings in the Environmental Justice Analysis, and in particular the fifth finding that USEPA has the ability and obligation to prevent and mitigate adverse consequences to minority and low-income communities associated with recycling and reclamation, should be viewed as the impetus for the proposed revisions to the reclamation rulemaking. Even though the Analysis is the driver of the proposed rulemaking, it should be noted that the Analysis itself is being published in the Federal Register alongside the rulemaking order to obtain public notice and comment on the methodology and conclusions of the Analysis, separate and distinct from the solicitation of public notice and comment associated with the proposed rulemaking.

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