Tunisia targets 30% household-waste recovery rate by 2030

Tunisia’s new development plan wants to turn household waste from a growing burden into a larger economic sector. Its target is to recover 30% of household waste by 2030, up from the current rate of 10%.

The country produces about 2.8 million tonnes of household waste each year, more than 9% of it plastic. That volume is expected to double by 2050, according to estimates cited in the plan. The sector already employs more than 18,000 people and includes several hundred companies, 231 of them created by university graduates.

The five-year plan relies on public-private partnerships to expand recovery. Tunisia’s existing public infrastructure includes 11 controlled landfills, six municipal landfills and 58 waste collection and transfer centres distributed across the country. Recycling streams include the Eco-Lef system, but the sector still suffers from weak organization and a large informal component.

The regulatory framework introduced in the 1990s is described as pioneering, but it now needs modernization and expansion to cover additional waste streams. The plan proposes an integrated waste-management system built around a circular economy, with private companies treated as full participants in a sector presented as a source of investment and jobs.

The stated direction is to move gradually away from simply sending waste to landfills and toward material, energy and organic recovery. Five treatment and recovery units are expected to be developed through public-private partnerships. The approach would return materials and energy from waste to the economic cycle, reduce landfill volumes and limit greenhouse-gas emissions.

Funding for waste management, mainly through the National Waste Management Agency, is expected to account for 20% of the budget assigned to environmental projects. The overall environmental investment envelope is set at nearly 6.8 billion Tunisian dinars.