Danger announces war on plastic!

In Venice, Italy, representatives of several Mediterranean cities involved in the Global Fund for Nature (WWF)’s Plastic Smart Cities initiative met for an exchange visit from June 22 to 23, 2022.

“The date set by the city to control the natural discharge of plastic waste by 2030 is November 2019. The municipality of Tangier has been able to present efforts,” Morocco said in a statement from the WWF. He represented the city of Morocco during the event. The head of the waste control and management department of the municipality of Tangier and a member of the project steering committee, Mr. Mouhssine Abderrahim. “Several delegates from the cities of Dubrovnik and Trojir (Croatia), Izmir and Çeşme (Turkey), Tinja (Tunisia) and Venice municipal officials also attended the event”, the event statement continues.

Involvement of representative bodies

In his presentation on the progress of the project, the head of the waste control and management department of the municipality of Tangier emphasized that the city’s commitment from 2020 onwards was fulfilled by adding clauses to the established agreements with companies entrusted with the cleaning service. They can mobilize nearly 200 workers every 6 months for an environment that cleans blackheads that are not part of the official waste collection path.

The representative of the municipality of Tangier also noted that in 2021 the WWF in collaboration with Morocco carried out a waste management analysis study based on a methodology implemented by the UN Habitat. “This study has made it possible to create new relevant indicators, which enable a reference level and guarantee to monitor the activities carried out within the framework of the project,” he noted.

A participatory steering committee

To ensure the involvement of a large number of relevant stakeholders, a steering committee of the Plastic Smart Cities Danger project was formed by coordinating representatives from various regional directorates: tourism, environment, industry and commerce, national education, HCP, as well. Representative companies operating in Tangier Port and Tangier: Mecomar, ARMA and Averda.

“Several pilot companies, including 4 schools, a hotel and Thanjavur Marina Bay International, have been working to set up tests on good plastic management practices since last year,” he said. Abdarrahim underlined during his presentation by Mouse. “Based on the good practices implemented in 4 pilot schools, the WWF Morocco Regional Directorate of National Education has produced and printed an educational guide entitled to distribute to all schools in the city.”

Verification of the action plan

“The project steering committee has reviewed key lines of the Tangier City Action Plan to achieve the goal of reducing plastic waste leaks,” the WWF Morocco press release said.

“One of the key elements of this road map is the establishment of a waste collection unit deployed by the pilot companies,” he said. Mouhssine announced that Averda would also set up a sorting center at the landfill. To improve the recycling capacity of waste.

The same source cited an awareness campaign conducted in various parts of the city from June 13 to 19 to clean up black spots. “This campaign has helped many local associations to take ownership of the project’s objectives, to prevent and report waste leaks into the environment, and to create a citizen monitoring system.

In addition, an accessible utility will be added, which will enable the municipality to report potential waste-related issues, ”the same source said.