Why Morocco’s Cities Struggle to Turn Waste Into Value Despite Circular Economy Plans

Every day in Morocco's largest cities, mountains of household waste move from kitchens and streets to landfills with little thought about what is lost along the way. A recent study published in Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, based on extensive fieldwork with municipal services, regional planning bodies, private waste operators, and civil society groups in Rabat, Fez, Tangier, and Marrakech, shows that waste has become one of North Africa's most urgent yet underestimated urban challenges. Rapid population growth, rising consumption, and expanding cities are pushing waste systems to their limits, even as policymakers increasingly promote the idea of a "circular economy" that treats waste as a resource rather than a burden.

Big Promises of the Circular Economy

On paper, the circular economy offers an attractive vision. Instead of the traditional "collect and dump" approach, cities would reduce waste at source, reuse materials, recycle what they can, and recover energy or value from what remains. Morocco has embraced this language in national strategies and municipal action plans, aligning itself with global sustainability goals. The expectation is that circular waste systems will protect the environment, create jobs, and reduce long-term costs. Yet the study shows that translating these promises into everyday municipal practice is far more difficult than policy documents suggest.

What Really Happens to City Waste

In reality, waste management in all four cities is still dominated by collection, transport, and disposal. Landfilling remains the main destination for household waste, while sorting, recycling, composting, and energy recovery play only a minor role. Rabat and Fez are partial exceptions, having introduced material recovery facilities, solid recovered fuel, and, in Fez's case, an anaerobic digestion plant. Even there, these initiatives handle only a small share of total waste. Tangier and Marrakech, despite their modern infrastructure and international image, rely almost entirely on landfill disposal. The gap between ambition and practice is wide, and it is growing as waste volumes increase.

Governance: The Missing Link

The study identifies weak governance as the core obstacle. Municipalities are legally responsible for waste management, but delegate most operations to private companies through long-term contracts. These contracts are often unclear, poorly monitored, and weakly enforced. Cities lack independent technical bodies to verify performance data, oversee recovery targets, or apply penalties when commitments are not met. Oversight committees tend to focus on whether streets are clean and complaints are low, rather than on environmental results. As a result, waste recovery remains a secondary concern, and circular economy goals stay largely symbolic.

People Matter as Much as Technology

Beyond institutions, social behavior plays a decisive role. Most households do not sort waste at source, making recycling and recovery difficult and expensive. Public awareness of waste reduction remains low, and vandalism of containers, informal dumping, and resistance to paying for services are common. At the same time, informal waste pickers recover valuable materials under unsafe conditions, often outside official systems. While some cities have started to integrate informal workers into sorting activities, the study finds that this has not yet produced significant environmental or economic benefits.

What Needs to Change

The research concludes that circular waste management will not succeed through technology or private contracts alone. It calls for a three-way commitment between municipalities, private operators, and citizens. Cities need clearer rules, stronger monitoring, better data, and contracts that reward recovery rather than just collection. Citizens need education and incentives to reduce waste and sort it at home. Private companies must be held accountable for long-term environmental performance, not just daily service delivery. Until these pieces come together, waste in Morocco's cities will remain less a hidden resource and more a visible reminder of how hard sustainable urban change really is.