Taounate will be declared a city without plastic bags by the end of next October, we learned from the province.

In preparation for the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), which will be organised from 7 to 18 November in Marrakech, a provincial commission has been set up in Taounate with the objective of ensuring the coordination and monitoring of the operations for the collection and definitive elimination of these plastic bags within a period of 5 months.

The creation of this commission was announced on the sidelines of a campaign for the collection and incineration of plastic crates, launched on Tuesday in the Ain Aicha commune under the Taounate province.

The operation to eliminate these bags, which will take place from June to the end of October, will be carried out with the participation of various public and private actors including the National Mutual Aid, the ministries of trade, industry, investment and digital economy, energy, mines and water, as well as local authorities and the HOLCIM factory.

Chaired by the governor of the province, Hassan Belhadfa, the commission will be responsible for developing an action programme for the collection and incineration of these crates and determining the places of their proliferation at the provincial level, as well as organising large awareness campaigns on the matter.

Launched by the governor of the province, this campaign comes in accordance with framework law 99-12 on the national charter for the environment and sustainable development, which aims to strengthen the protection and preservation of resources, natural environments, biodiversity, and cultural heritage, to prevent and fight against pollution and nuisances, to integrate sustainable development into sectoral public policies, and to adopt a national strategy for sustainable development.

This action is also part of the implementation of law 77-15 on the prohibition, starting next July, of the manufacture, export, marketing, and use of plastic bags, as well as law 28-00 relating to waste management and its elimination, which aims to prevent and protect human health, fauna, flora, water, air, soil, ecosystems, sites, landscapes, and the environment in general against the harmful effects of waste.

This operation is also in the wake of efforts aimed at achieving the definitive eradication of plastic bags at the national level, before COP22.