The Waste Disposal Issues of Morocco and Turkey

While in Marrakech and even during our memorable trip to the Atlas Mountains, I noticed that all drinking water was supplied in plastic bottles – the thin type of plastic that squashes together easily. Many pallets of large bottles were transported to the villages in the Alps, large and small bottles were offered in restaurants and  pedalled by people on vespa’s and with wheel barrows.  Where do these bottles, and other waste end up, I wondered? Apparently Morocco has a very serious waste disposal problem, I found out from Google. So bad that a new ‘breed’ of people now live at the waste dumps, making money from selling waste, just as they do in some Asian countries. Not only that, the World Bank has lent, or given Morocco $271.3 million to develop a plan.

I noticed that in Istanbul, all drinking water, except in a few restaurants we ate at, is supplied in plastic bottles. Like Morocco, there are piles of plastic bottles of water ready to be sold, everywhere.

Turkey has a huge rubbish issue, contributing to items disposed in the Black Sea. ‘Turkey is among the 20 countries responsible for 83 percent of the bad plastic waste management in the world, Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV) head Prof. Dr. Bayram Öztürk has said’