Morocco Defends Lucrative European Waste Import Program, Citing Economic Benefits

The use, recycling and recovery of these imported European waste is a very profitable economic operation and inexpensive, Benali said, in response to the written questions of the heads of the parliamentary groups of the Popular Movement (MP) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) in the House of Representatives on the economic interest of importing more than 2.5 million tons of waste and used tires and its consequences on the environment and health.

The minister also assured that she will ensure the preservation of the environment and natural resources. "The import of non-hazardous waste is organized in accordance with the provisions of Law 28.008 on their management and disposal. It is also regulated by implementing texts, in particular Decree 587.7.25 setting the conditions and procedures for the import, export and transit of waste," she said.

In a recent statement, the official had specified that 2.240 million used tires and 17,024 tons of other non-hazardous waste should be imported into the kingdom from the United Kingdom (1.5 million tons), France (970,000 tons), Norway (100,000 tons), Sweden (60,000 tons) and Italy (20,000 tons), recalls Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, stressing that this "ordinary" operation had been carried out for the first time in 2003 under the socialist minister Mohamed El Yazghi.

It was repeated under the minister Adil Douiri, then in charge of the environment and urban planning, we are told. For the record, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal prohibits the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries.