Assessing the performance of a waste management system towards a circular economy in the Global South: The case of Marrakech (Morocco)

Waste management is essential for the safety and wellbeing of any society; it also helps to tackle global problems, such as climate change and resource scarcity. To support the evolution of waste management systems (WMSs) towards a circular economy (CE), assessment methods are applied. This paper shows, using the case of Marrakech (Morocco), how a novel holistic approach called WMS development stage concept (WMS-DSC) is applied to assess WMSs and determine measures promoting a CE. The approach enables a simplified derivation of measures that are useful to municipal decision makers and consists of five stages; stage 1 is equal to a WMS lacking essential WM elements and stage 5 describes a functioning CE. The approach was specifically designed to be transferable to other Global South cities through the categorization into these universal stages. The results from the WMS-DSC show that components related to energy recovery and waste recycling are classified in stage 1. For the latter, a slight development towards stage 2 can be assumed due to the planned activities in Marrakech. The components "collection and transport" and "prevention and reuse" are mainly in stage 2. Nevertheless, the components "governance", "sector and market" and "waste disposal" are assigned to stages 2 and 3 with a stronger trend towards stage 4. The results show that in Marrakech and Morocco, CE is still in its infancy, and with this current state, it is hard to achieve. However, 33 measures were determined to improve the WMS of Marrakech and promote a CE.