2023-12-04 09:56:22
“Plastic for me is money!” declares Riadh, boss of a small recycling unit. This type of affair is slow to see the light of day in a country where the vast majority of waste is buried without treatment and where landfills are reaching saturation point.
In Tunisia and as in most African countries, waste is a real disaster for the environment. They contribute massively to the destruction of ecosystems and represent a danger to the health of living organisms.
Every day, more and more waste accumulates in landfills which are reaching saturation point. Unsorted or unwashed waste and plastic have thus become a major environmental problem on the continent as well as here, where States and civil and humanitarian actors are trying to remedy this ecological disaster.
Africa takes over
Although Africa produces only 7% of the planet’s plastics, it is the continent most affected by pollution. It is also a “hub” for plastic waste, particularly following the decision of Asia and particularly China in the summer of 2017 to no longer be the “recipient of global plastic waste” (China collected approximately 70% of waste). As a result, other Asian states, such as Malaysia, India and Thailand, had no other choice but to follow suit, due to a lack of sufficient recycling capacity to cope with the ever-increasing quantity abundant plastic waste. This is how Africa “took over” and became the new preferred destination for the export of plastic waste.
By “setting their sights” on Africa, industrialists in the sector are trying to force African states to lift some of the environmental restrictions to make several African countries the new global gateways for plastic waste. “Externalization of the recycling cost” is the main motivation for manufacturers, with companies not bearing these costs.
In Tunisia, it must be admitted that the recycling sector is practically non-existent. 85% of waste is sent to technical landfill centers (CET) and the rest accumulates in illegal dumps, a waste management expert tells us.
The majority of the 11 CETs are scheduled to close in 2022, according to another specialist working from a European country. According to him, “the authorities are facing big problems finding new sites to bury the 2.6 million tonnes produced annually”.
4 to 7% of household waste recycled
“Plastic for me is money!” declares Riadh, boss of a small recycling unit. And unfortunately, only 4 to 7% of household waste is recycled. “When I started in 2009, it wasn’t as profitable to recycle,” he says. But since its opening in 2009, the company has continued to grow and today recycles 6,000 tonnes of waste per year, including 1,000 of plastic, rejoices the industrialist.
The ton of plastic waste that he bought, a few months ago, for 200 dinars is now sold to him for more than 300 dinars by his suppliers, including dozens of “barbéchas”, the kingpin of this informal recycling. “Recycling is a sector where everything needs to be done and which can provide jobs and wealth in Tunisia,” estimates the entrepreneur who employs around sixty people directly and more than 200 indirectly. A significant proportion of its employees are women who support the entire family where the husband is unemployed.
All day long, the Tuk Tuks of the rag pickers and trucks bring bales which are weighed, sorted, crushed then transformed into chips or pellets for the industry. “I must admit that the waste management system in Tunisia is catastrophic at all levels, particularly at the collection level. And I must also recognize that implementing selective sorting would take years.”
Even the National Waste Management Agency (ANGED) itself recognizes the terrible lack of resources, management and planning. Among its objectives, mastering the management of different types of waste, encouraging material and energy recovery from waste, strengthening efforts to create jobs relating to waste management, encouraging the participation of the private sector in the field of waste management, improvement of the institutional, legal and financial management framework for waste and communication, consultation, awareness raising and data control in the field of management waste, in addition to the general objectives relating to improving environmental protection through the implementation of integrated and sustainable waste management and promoting the quality of life of citizens. Anged promised, in one of the latest strategic plans, a reduction in waste for the years to come, as well as its treatment.
Incineration with clean technologies
Faced with the serious situation of landfills, Tunisia has opted for mechanical-biological treatment. This involves the combination of mechanical sorting and compacting operations with composting and methanization. Unfortunately, the first projects will only see the light of day in at least two years, according to those in the know. “Time is really once morest us,” they worry.
According to them, there is a problem with financing waste reprocessing. “Only 25% of citizens pay the housing tax including a tax on waste” which caps at the paltry level of 800 millimes per year, while each Tunisian produces at least 365 kg of waste annually.
It is therefore imperative to create a waste management tax and make everyone pay for the quantity they produce,” they propose. This would allow municipalities that have exclusive control to have funds for waste management. The transition from landfill to treatment will cost more, but according to specialists “we will certainly gain in terms of environmental protection”.
Still according to these same specialists, “there is an emergency and the best solution, for cities and to be able to process large quantities, would be incineration, with clean technologies”.
1701697363
#Plastic #waste #underexploited #economic #fortune
