Minister of Municipal Affairs Shihadeh Abu Hdeib met on Wednesday with selected local and foreign companies interested in carrying out a feasibility study on the project.

Abu Hdeib said the ministry will study the offers to be submitted by these firms, for which the ministry will arrange a field tour of landfills to understand the situation, noting that one of the prerequisites to a feasible power-generating project is the availability of substantial quantities of solid waste.

The tour would help the companies interested in the project have a better picture of the volume of waste collected in the two areas, he said.

According to ministry figures, Zarqa Municipality collects more than 1,000 tonnes of solid waste every day while the Municipality of Irbid gathers over 700 tonnes of waste.

Mayors and governors from both districts attended the meeting.

If implemented, the project is expected to be “a good source of income for these municipalities, which can use the generated funds to carry out other development projects for the good of their local communities”, Abu Hdeib was quoted in a ministry statement as saying.

The statement also cited Ralf Schroeder, manager of the US-based Grand Industrial Co., as saying that his firm, which is specialised in processing and recycling solid waste, is willing to work with Jordanian experts to build a future vision on the prospects of producing electrical power from solid waste in cities that collect large quantities of waste.

Schroeder briefed the meeting on the company’s activities and its experiences in the field, noting that the firm has carried out similar projects in major world cities such as Moscow and Vienna.