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Morocco’s Coasts
Maghreb Models for Emulation
At the subregional level, some Maghreb countries are making notable progress in identifying the sources of plastic leakage and hot spots that require urgent action. For example, Morocco, in response to its concerns about marine pollution and building on previous initiatives, is taking initial steps toward formulating a national strategy for a “plastic-free coastline” (littoral sans plastique, or LISP) dedicated to the reduction of marine pollution and plastic leakage and to the promotion of circulareconomy models and blue-economy models in coastal regions.
In 2019, with the support of the World Bank, Morocco undertook a comprehensive analysis to identify hot spots and anticipate main areas of intervention and challenges. (Box 4.2 presents more details about the study methodology.) Through a participatory approach in 17 coastal towns involving all stakeholders at the local level and different methods of research (collecting primary data, using mapping tools, and reviewing the literature to identify plastic-leakage hot spots), the analysis showed the following (World Bank 2021d):
• The main sources of plastic leakage in those areas were high levels of household and plastic waste in highly populated coastal regions; waste mismanagement (in some towns, as much as 60 percent); and high quantities of plastic waste generated by tourism, agriculture, and marine activities.
BOX 4.2
Identifying hot spots of marine-plastic leakage is a core element of policy action because it answers questions such as “where to act” (in which location or which industrial or economic sector); “what is leaking” (which polymer, application, or both polymer and application are most commonly found); and “why is there leaking” (which cultural behaviors and context features, such as a lack of garbage bins, are driving the leakage). Locating hot spots is a technical task that is key to identifying the sources of plastic pollution and key to formulating relevant interventions and policy instruments.
The government of Morocco—with the help of the World Bank—has been identifying the main waste-leakage points or hot spot areas related to marineplastic pollution. The study is based on guidance developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the public-private Life Cycle Initiative to identify plastic-leakage
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BOX 4.2
hot spots, assess their impacts along the plastic value chain, and prioritize actions. This methodology is based on global studies that identify different land-based activities as the main sources of marine pollution delivered to the sea by various transport factors.
The methodology includes two major components:
• Quantifying marine waste: The goal is to identify and quantify the most harmful plastic items (or group of items) and activities that are sources of marine debris (for instance, fishing, tourism, and recreational activities as well as SUPs, bottles, plastic bags, and so forth).
• Identifying pressure points: To determine the coastal hot spots of plastic leakage, a set of indicators and criteria are applied to evaluate different categories of pressures (such as coastal populations, waste management practices, economic activities, and environmental status).
The results of these studies helped to identify 17 coastal cities within the two Moroccan seafronts (5 Mediterranean cities and 12 Atlantic cities), based on a set of indicators relating to (a) population size; (b) rate of mismanaged waste; (c) amount of plastic waste not collected; (d) amount of plastic waste in open dump sites; (e) amount of plastic waste delivered to the sea; (f) amount of marine waste; (g) percentage of plastics in total marine waste; and (h) percentage of medical, sanitary, or both medical and sanitary waste in total marine waste.
For each of these categories, several indicators were used and rated on a scale of 1 to 4, where higher values indicate worse performance. The maximum score for a given site is 124, while the minimum is 31, with higher values signaling that these sites are faring worse and should be treated as hot spots. The results of this analysis showed that
• Hot Spot Priority (A) is the city of Casablanca, which had the highest possible score (124), mainly because of population pressure and waste disposal in the
Mediouna open dump site; and
• Hot Spots Priority (B) are the cities of
Kenitra (with a score of 105 out of 124 possible points), Tangier (94), and
Tetouan (83) because of their high populations and the delivery of waste to landfills.
Other cities such as Nador, Rabat-Salé, Mohammadia, El Jadida, Safi, Agadir or Sidi Ifni are classified as relatively sensitive areas with scores ranging from 58 to 82.
Source: World Bank 2021d.
• Plastic debris represents between 40 and 90 percent of total waste in the seabed.
• Recreational activities generate most of the plastic waste (58 percent), followed by port activities (30 percent) and agriculture (12 percent). • In addition, 98 percent of the plastic waste stemming from recreational activities consists of SUPs (such as bottles, food packaging, plastic cups, and food containers).
Similarly, Tunisia is carrying out initial studies to develop a policy framework for a coastal strategy free of plastic pollution. As part of the collaboration between the Tunisian government and the World Bank for the development of a circular and blue economy strategy, a series of studies addressing marine-plastic debris have been carried out with the aim of developing an integrated strategy and series of policy measures to reduce plastic pollution. These studies revealed the following (World Bank 2021f): • The concentration of Tunisia’s population along the coastlines (72 percent of the total population in 13 coastal governorates) is a major driver of waste generation and plastic pollution. • The portion of beach waste that is plastic ranges from 48 percent at
Sfax Beach to 78 percent in places like the Kerkennah Islands (where there is high fishing activity and no sustainable waste management regulations for this type of activity). • Products such as bottle caps, food packaging, plastic bags, and other plastic fragments measuring up to 2.5 centimeters were the top five products found in the fieldwork. The same study found that no specific system has been put in place by Tunisia’s tourist municipalities for integrated waste management, especially for hotels and restaurants. A detailed value-chain analysis of the plastic and packaging sector sheds light on the current sector bottlenecks as well as the preliminary impacts of COVID-19 on the surge of SUPs (World Bank 2021f).
In conclusion, plastic pollution is the result of failures across the entire plastic life cycle, including production, consumption, waste management, and secondary markets for recycled material. Identifying the sources of plastic pollution is a complex issue that involves multiple sources and actors. Addressing plastic pollution for blue and clean seas will require all stakeholders across the value chain to join forces and intervene at various levels to obtain results in the short run. Efforts to properly identify the hot spots, sources, and causes of marine-plastic pollution in the Middle East and North Africa should be initiated and supported at all levels.
These efforts are a necessary prerequisite to formulate appropriate, location-specific policy responses to rein in the plastic tide that is entering the region’s seas.
Comprehensive Policy Options for Reducing Marine-Plastic Pollution
Reducing marine-plastic pollution in the Middle East and North Africa’s seas should be part of a comprehensive circular-economy approach. This is crucial to protect the natural resources upon which the region’s residents (like the residents of all countries) depend, while reducing pollution’s damages to human health and to countries’ economies. Effectively reducing the region’s marine-plastic pollution is one component of a five-component approach, here called the “3 R’s + 2”:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle + Appropriate SWM (including cleanups) of plastics that cannot be reused or recycled + Awareness-raising of all stakeholders.
The latter “stakeholders” must include the general population to foster understanding of, and support for, the benefits of a circular-economy approach.
Crucially, reducing marine-plastic pollution requires the improvement of SWM systems to stop leakage. This is an important complement to the other policies, helping producers rethink how plastics are produced and how new consumption models for reuse, recycling, and cleanup methods are needed to restore currently degraded ecosystems. This section of the report discusses a wider set of solutions for addressing these issues, highlights best practices in the region and other countries, and begins with a look at the circular-economy approach.
The Circular-Economy Approach to Plastics
The circular economy proposes a set of principles to (a) synergistically improve—at the local, country, and global levels—the environment, human health, and economic development by (b) minimizing the wasting of resources and the pollution of the environment through a comprehensive approach of reducing, reusing, and recycling materials. In other words, the circular economy is an economic system in which materials constantly flow around a closed-loop system rather than being used once and then discarded (figure 4.10).
In the case of plastics, circular concept means retaining the value of plastics in the economy without harmful leakage into the natural environment.
