In Morocco, the waste deposit was estimated in 2020 at more than 7 million tonnes, with an average annual production of household waste in urban areas estimated at 5.5 million tonnes, i.e. the equivalent on average of 0.8 kg per day and per individual. For rural areas, the estimates are at 1.6 million tonnes per year, almost the average equivalent of 0.3 kg per day and per person, reports the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).
As part of the development of its opinion on the circular economy, the EESC requested, from 3 to 14 February 2022, the contribution of citizens through its platform ” Ouchariko “. To this end, the results of the consultation give an overall idea of the participants’ perception of the two areas chosen by the ESEC, namely household waste and wastewater. Some 14,335 interacted with the subject, including 782 participants in the questionnaire.
Entitled ” Integration of the principles of the circular economy into the treatment of household waste and wastewater“, the ESEC presented its opinion on the circular economy in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of Organic Law No. 128-12. This opinion comes in a context marked by modes of production and consumption based mainly on a linear model consisting of producing, consuming and throwing away, specifies the ESEC.
This model, which is no longer sustainable according to the department of Reda Chami, has serious consequences on the environment (depletion of natural resources, accumulation of waste and pollution), with a loss of earnings in terms of growth and creation of jobs.
First, it must be understood that the circular economy, as defined by the United Nations Environment Assembly, is “ one of the sustainable economic models, in which products and materials are designed in such a way that they can be reused, remanufactured, recycled or recovered and therefore kept in the economy for as long as possible “. Its ultimate objective is to succeed in decoupling economic growth from the depletion of natural resources, by creating innovative products, services, business models and public policies, taking into account all the flows throughout the life of a product or service.
Thus, and according to the opinion of the EESC, the issue of household and similar waste (DMA) in Morocco has been significantly impacted by changes linked to population growth, rapid urbanization and changes in production methods and citizens’ consumption.
” Previously, Moroccans practiced the principles of the circular economy without even knowing it. It was a company that didn’t waste so many resources and reused almost everything. Today, with the modernization of the economy, pollution from waste has become a priority in the field of the environment in Morocco.“, says the EESC.
While insisting on the need to recover organic matter, the ESEC indicates that the recovery of household waste presupposes their reintroduction into the cycle with a view to transforming them into new resources and giving them a market value. This recovery can be done upstream through separation and sorting, then downstream through recovery.
That said, the recycling rate is currently still very low, specifies the ESEC, not exceeding 10% in 2020, with forecasts which count on reaching a rate of 30% in 2022. However, the implementation of certain local experiences has succeeded in cities such as Rabat, Fez and Oujda and has made it possible to recover cardboard, glass and other industrial waste, with a view to their recovery by some companies, the Council indicated.
With a volume of waste estimated in 2020 at more than 7 million tonnes of waste, with an average annual production of household waste in urban areas estimated at 5.5 million tonnes per year, the ESEC has linked the increase in the volume of waste has a number of reasons, including the linear economic model of production, transformation and consumption processes that contribute to the disposal of waste, as well as industrial processes resulting from transformed materials that nature cannot process, such as plastic.
Faced with such findings, the sustainability of the production and consumption model consisting of “ take, make, use and lose is called into question, explains the ESEC, noting that the current model, known as linear, has certainly made it possible, for a long time, to accelerate technical progress and economic development. However, it has reached its limits, particularly because of its double impact on the environment upstream, through primary production leading to a depletion of natural resources, and downstream, because of discharges into the natural environment which continue to increase. grow, in the form of waste or other forms of pollution.
Moreover, the creation and management of landfills in Morocco continues to encounter real and sometimes even insurmountable failures and difficulties, raises the Council. Despite the strong progress noted between 2012 and 2015, the landfilling of waste remains behind schedule, partly due to the construction of controlled landfills (out of 72 controlled landfills planned for 2020, only 24 have been set up) , indicates the same source, which emphasizes that landfilling remains the only option used to treat household and similar waste.
Based on this diagnosis, the ESEC pleads for the adoption of a national strategy aimed at the transition to a circular economy. In this regard, the Council proposes several measures, namely the development of a framework law relating to the circular economy and an anti-waste law, and ensuring that existing laws are reoriented and revised in order to ultimately evolve a linear operating economy to a circular economy.
The council also proposes to create a body, within the ministry responsible for investment, convergence and the evaluation of public policies, which will be responsible for coordination between all the stakeholders in order to ensure an optimal declination of this strategy, according to a sector-based approach and territorialized deployment.
With regard to household waste in particular, the ESEC calls for the current management contracts concluded between local authorities, local development companies and private companies to be revised, by integrating waste recovery (instead of depositing it , landfilling or incineration) while setting binding targets for the territories to reduce the dumping of waste.
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