Circular Economy in Morocco: Status and Perspectives

Abstract

Sustainable development has gained recently lot of interest and priority to preserve and maintain the natural equilibrium broken by human extensive activities. In particular, this has led to new paradigm: circular economy. It is described under different terms such as biomimicry, industrial ecology, natural capitalism, blue economy, regenerative design, and closing loops. Particularly sensitive and aware of the depletion of his natural resources due to anthropogenic factors, Morocco is engaged in the way of remediation through different sectors, known for their direct impact on the environment and health. The main activities that retain attention of the national strategy include best management of solid waste (that includes municipal wastes, plastics waste, e-wastes, industrial and hazardous wastes, bio medical wastes, and construction and demolition wastes), wastewater and sludge, agricultural waste, end-of-life of vehicle wastes, renewable energy and electricity. To achieve sustainable development, natural resources have to be preserved and their exploitation has to be rationalized. Also, natural resources consumption should be rationalized and resource recovery should be maximized. This approach needs to be supported by the national legislative framework.

Moroccan approach is based on existing legislation guided by different legal texts concerning the environment and backed by different national plans related to different sectors. This have paved the way to the involvement of private sectors (NGOs) to contribute in public–private project (PPP) in order to achieve targets in terms of investments and efficiency. The objective of this chapter is to provide and to overview the status of implementation of Circular Economy in Morocco supported by 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) concepts. Results of this strategy are reflected in the degree of achievement of the projects currently ongoing or planned for each sector.