Representatives from around the globe are gearing up for a major conference in Morocco to endorse a<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/un-to-vote-on-haleys-last-stand-condemning-hamas-181788"> United Nations</a> migration pact, despite a string of countries shunning the accord.&nbsp;

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalised at the UN in July following 18 months of negotiations and will be formally adopted at the two-day gathering in Marrakesh starting Monday.

The non-binding UN accord, which aims to promote a common approach to growing migrant flows, has become a target for populist politicians who denounce it as an affront to national sovereignty. &nbsp;

The United States quit negotiations last December and was followed by Hungary seven months later.&nbsp;

Since then, Australia, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia and the Dominican Republic have either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations they are not participating.&nbsp;

Rows over the accord have erupted in several European Union nations, threatening to tear apart Belgium's coalition government and pushing Slovakia's foreign minister to tender his resignation.

But key backers led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Morocco to endorse the pact and the UN remains upbeat that it can help the world better cope with the hot-button issue.&nbsp;

"I am very confident: a large number of states continue to keep their word, they reached agreement on July 13 in New York after very serious and very intense negotiations," UN special representative for migration Louise Arbour told AFP.&nbsp;

"The countries dropping out of the process today had after all obtained concessions during the negotiations, and I must admit that I find it a little surprising."

'Controversial text'&nbsp;

The global pact lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage the influx as the number of people on the move worldwide has increased to over 250 million, or just over three per cent of the world's population.

The deal had been held up as an example of a UN diplomatic success achieved without the US at a time when President Donald Trump is questioning the relevance of the world body.

After the Marrakesh conference, the General Assembly is set to adopt a resolution formally endorsing the migration deal.

The pact has not only come under fire from right-wing politicians but has also faced criticism from activists who argue that it does not go far enough on humanitarian aid, services and the rights of migrants.&nbsp;

Gotz Schmidt-Bremme, head of the UN initiative Global Forum on Migration and Development, admitted that the accord had become a "controversial text", but insisted a common approach was needed.

"Maybe the benefits of legal migration were over-emphasised and we forgot about the challenges... we underestimated the need of communities that above all want to see migrants integrate," he told AFP.&nbsp;

Manipulation'&nbsp;

Proponents of the deal have lashed out at what they see as a campaign to discredit the accord and turn it into a domestic political issue that can whip up voters.&nbsp;

"We are witnessing from some political sectors the manipulation, the distortion of the objectives of the pact," said Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration.&nbsp;

"Certainly there are challenges, irregular immigration is a threat, but we must react to the negative narrative by mobilising politically."&nbsp;

The leaders of Germany, Spain, Greece and Portugal are set to attend the conference, while French President <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/frances-macron-says-nothing-can-justify-the-violence-in-paris-180902">Emmanuel Macron </a>is sending a junior minister as he deals with the ''<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/not-enough-say-yellow-vests-and-supporters-on-governments-suspension-of-fuel-tax-181716">yellow vest"</a> protests at home.&nbsp;

Belgium's liberal premier Charles Michel won the support of parliament to head to Morocco and back the accord, but his coalition risks losing the backing of a key Flemish nationalist party over the issue.&nbsp;

From the US to Europe and beyond, right-wing leaders have been taking increasingly draconian measures to shut out-migrants in recent years.

Trump made curbing immigration and building a wall on the US-Mexico border a key election pledge and has focused his recent ire on a migrant caravan from Central America. &nbsp;

In Europe, anti-immigrant sentiment helped push a populist coalition to power in Italy that has clamped down on boats rescuing migrants at sea and Hungary's premier Viktor Orban has pushed restrictive legislation. &nbsp;

Representatives from around the globe are gearing up for a major conference in Morocco to endorse a United Nations migration pact, despite a string of countries shunning the accord.

Representatives from around the globe are gearing up for a major conference in Morocco to endorse a United Nations migration pact, despite a string of countries shunning the accord. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalised at the UN in July following 18 months of negotiations and will be formally adopted at the two-day gathering in Marrakesh starting Monday. The non-binding UN accord, which aims to promote a common approach to growing migrant flows, has become a target for populist politicians who denounce it as an affront to national sovereignty. The United States quit negotiations last December and was followed by Hungary seven months later. Since then, Australia, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia and the Dominican Republic have either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations they are not participating. Rows over the accord have erupted in several European Union nations, threatening to tear apart Belgium's coalition government and pushing Slovakia's foreign minister to tender his resignation. But key backers led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Morocco to endorse the pact and the UN remains upbeat that it can help the world better cope with the hot-button issue. "I am very confident: a large number of states continue to keep their word, they reached agreement on July 13 in New York after very serious and very intense negotiations," UN special representative for migration Louise Arbour told AFP. "The countries dropping out of the process today had after all obtained concessions during the negotiations, and I must admit that I find it a little surprising." 'Controversial text' The global pact lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage the influx as the number of people on the move worldwide has increased to over 250 million, or just over three per cent of the world's population. The deal had been held up as an example of a UN diplomatic success achieved without the US at a time when President Donald Trump is questioning the relevance of the world body. After the Marrakesh conference, the General Assembly is set to adopt a resolution formally endorsing the migration deal. The pact has not only come under fire from right-wing politicians but has also faced criticism from activists who argue that it does not go far enough on humanitarian aid, services and the rights of migrants. Gotz Schmidt-Bremme, head of the UN initiative Global Forum on Migration and Development, admitted that the accord had become a "controversial text", but insisted a common approach was needed. "Maybe the benefits of legal migration were over-emphasised and we forgot about the challenges... we underestimated the need of communities that above all want to see migrants integrate," he told AFP. Manipulation' Proponents of the deal have lashed out at what they see as a campaign to discredit the accord and turn it into a domestic political issue that can whip up voters. "We are witnessing from some political sectors the manipulation, the distortion of the objectives of the pact," said Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration. "Certainly there are challenges, irregular immigration is a threat, but we must react to the negative narrative by mobilising politically." The leaders of Germany, Spain, Greece and Portugal are set to attend the conference, while French President Emmanuel Macron is sending a junior minister as he deals with the ''yellow vest" protests at home. Belgium's liberal premier Charles Michel won the support of parliament to head to Morocco and back the accord, but his coalition risks losing the backing of a key Flemish nationalist party over the issue. From the US to Europe and beyond, right-wing leaders have been taking increasingly draconian measures to shut out-migrants in recent years. Trump made curbing immigration and building a wall on the US-Mexico border a key election pledge and has focused his recent ire on a migrant caravan from Central America. In Europe, anti-immigrant sentiment helped push a populist coalition to power in Italy that has clamped down on boats rescuing migrants at sea and Hungary's premier Viktor Orban has pushed restrictive legislation.

Morocco meeting to adopt UN migration pact despite withdrawals

<h1>The small hands of Moroccan recycling</h1>

<figure><img alt="File 20170519 12263 vvjzz7" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170165/width754/file-20170519-12263-vvjzz7.jpg" />
<figcaption>A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) <a class="source" href="http://www.bab-el-louk.org/">www.bab-el-louk.org</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></figcaption>
</figure>

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/benedicte-florin-348742">B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-francois-rabelais-de-tours-2282">Universit&eacute; Fran&ccedil;ois-Rabelais de Tours</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mustapha-azaitraoui-369200">Mustapha Azaitraoui</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-hassan-ier-3095">Universit&eacute; Hassan Ier</a>

This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book <a href="http://www.pressesdesciencespo.fr/fr/livre/?GCOI=27246100106200">What to do with leftovers? Re-employment in Accumulation Societies</a>. The photographs by <a href="http://www.bab-el-louk.org/">Pascal Garret</a>, sociologist and freelance photographer, who collaborates with social scientists on the theme of waste recovery and recycling.

<hr />
Casablanca, Morocco, summer 2016. With constant heat often above 30&deg;C, garbage can quickly suffocate the four millions inhabitants of this city. But as visitors navigate through the second-largest city of the Maghrebian region, small hands are making sure that large quantities of waste do not pile up on landfills by offering them new life.

These men and women belong to populations that anthropologist Delphine Corteel and sociologist St&eacute;phane Le Lay (<a href="https://www.cairn.info/travailleurs-des-dechets--9782749214368.htm">ERES, 2011</a>) have called &ldquo;waste workers&rdquo;.

Despite their tremendous and tiring work, they remain excluded from the Moroccan society because of the uncleanliness of their work, and the nature of their living spaces.

They live on the margins of legal urban areas, in slums and makeshift houses, which are regularly demolished or threatened by real estate and urban projects. While working in the streets, they are often victims of violence either committed by the authorities or other inhabitants.

We conducted interviews with many members of this community <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01249663">from 2011</a>. Our objective was to show that these waste collectors, sorters, semi-wholesalers, recyclers and transporters often consider their work as a real profession and believe that their role is essential, especially given that environmental issues have never been higher on the agenda.

According to our multi-site surveys, more than a third of Casablanca&rsquo;s household waste would escape rejection from landfills.

Far from presenting an image of misery and exclusion, we wish to portray this population free from the stigma that usually accompanies activities linked to waste.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170162/area14mp/file-20170519-12226-tpm669.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170162/width754/file-20170519-12226-tpm669.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Overview of one part of a waste recycling area in Casablanca, Lahraouine. In the background, you can see the social housing district of Attacharouk. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Situated on the outskirts of Casablanca and in a topographic depression, the Lahraouine district remains virtually invisible from the outside. Most workers live in neighbouring douars (slums) where running water is absent and electricity is supplied by generators or illegal connections.

Several real estate projects have put pressure on the city to revamp the <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/04/15/casablanca-construit-son-reve-de-place-economique-internationale_4616523_3212.html">district and get rid of its slums</a>. As the waste collectors do not owner their lands and there&rsquo;s no rehousing project, they live in fear of eviction.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170167/area14mp/file-20170519-12231-td08us.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170167/width754/file-20170519-12231-td08us.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A bouar returning from his tour in the outskirts of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

This bouar (the word is derived from the French word &eacute;boueur for garbage man) returns from the city with a cart filled with his daily collection. But the increasing number of containers buried in the affluent neighbourhoods of Casablanca reduces access to this waste resource.

More often than not, the bouara (plural for bouar) have to limit their work to open bins in working-class neighbourhoods. They are also more tolerated in these areas than in the city&rsquo;s central districts or middle-upper class areas. In the latter, police can harass them, even arrest them and confiscate their donkeys and carts.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170277/area14mp/file-20170522-25068-19nhlyf.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170277/width754/file-20170522-25068-19nhlyf.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Inside view of a gelssa of Lahraouine. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017)</figcaption>
</figure>

The gelssas (a term derived from the verb gels, which means sit down in darija, the language of the Maghreb region) are enclosures of various sizes surrounded by palisades (metal sheets, tarps, boards or dried waste that form a kind of wall) where the bouara centralise their harvest after each city tour.

Their collection is sold by weight and consists mainly of cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, fabrics and vegetable waste. Valuable objects, after changing hands several times, will eventually end up in one of the city&rsquo;s flea markets (joutiya). Nothing that can be used is left behind.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170280/area14mp/file-20170522-25041-9c0nul.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170280/width754/file-20170522-25041-9c0nul.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A worker sorting waste in a gelssa specialised on plastic materials. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

The bouara of Casablanca can make about &euro;20 daily, but many must rent their equipment (cart and animal) from their bosses for &euro;2.

Some gelssas are versatile sorting and recycling sites (plastics, wood, metal, rags), where materials are sorted by type. Others specialise in a particular material, as is the case below for plastic.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170282/area14mp/file-20170522-25076-jox0vi.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170282/width754/file-20170522-25076-jox0vi.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>There is no electricity in the gelssas and this machine is powered by a generator. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017)</figcaption>
</figure>

After collection and sorting, some materials have to be compacted and crushed to take up less space, which adds value. The materials will then be sold to informal sector wholesalers or to the formal sector through pick-ups or trucks sent to carry the waste.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170279/area14mp/file-20170522-25076-9jjyyc.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170279/width754/file-20170522-25076-9jjyyc.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Women sorting plastic waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

In Lahraouine, we have not seen many women in the gelssas. Among the 3,000 active waste-recyclers we roughly counted, the majority are young men and we estimated that there were only 500 to 600 women. They are only assigned to sorting tasks.

The <a href="http://www.hcp.ma/Etude-d-Impact-de-la-crise-mondiale-sur-l-economie-marocaine_a867.html">economic crisis in Morocco</a> has led to an increase of waste workers in Casablanca.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170286/area14mp/file-20170522-25008-1jbpntt.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170286/width754/file-20170522-25008-1jbpntt.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>The sheds of waste collectors are themselves made with waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Waste collectors come, for the most part, from the countryside to escape poverty. Some of them originate from very remote villages in the eastern regions of Casablanca.

Many, especially youngsters, come and go according to agricultural cycles. <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/10/17/poverty-has-fallen-in-the-maghreb-but-inequality-persists">Nearly 19% of Morocco&rsquo;s agriculturally dependent rural population</a> still lives in poverty or in danger of becoming impoverished. These seasonal workers are hosted by relatives in the douars of Lahraouine or live in sheds inside gelssas.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170285/area14mp/file-20170522-25041-wjvqkj.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170285/width754/file-20170522-25041-wjvqkj.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>The boss of a gelssa posing with his horse. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

This boss of a gelssa employs several waste collectors. He owns a few carts pulled by a donkey or a horse, and is a &ldquo;middle-income earner&rdquo;.

There is a very strong hierarchy in the world of recycling. At the lower level are the simple bouara and women who sort and earn low incomes. At the end of the higher range are the bosses of large gelssas who own one or more trucks and plastic crushers.

Gelssas bosses are very familiar with the cost and value of materials on the market and keep themselves updated through the internet or their mobile phones. They know exactly where, to whom and when to sell to get the maximum benefit from their wares.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170288/area14mp/file-20170522-25027-1l4gh1j.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170288/width754/file-20170522-25027-1l4gh1j.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A waste collector at work in the Mediouna dump. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Situated about 20 kilometres south of Greater Casablanca, <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01524893">the Mediouna&rsquo;s landfill</a> receives nearly 3,500 tons of household waste each day, brought in by the trucks of waste-recycling companies.

At this site, which should normally mark the end of life for Casablanca&rsquo;s waste, some 600 illegal waste collectors extract about 1000 tons of materials daily that will be re-injected into the informal and formal recycling circuit.

The business of recycling factories and export wholesalers depends heavily on the activities of street collectors or the Mediouna landfill from whom they buy recovered materials at a lower cost. Secondary raw materials produced by the formal sector of the economy are largely derived from the work of these hidden workers.

Blurring the borders, this small world of informal workers is thus &ndash; directly or indirectly &ndash; well inserted in the economic chain on every level: local, regional, national and even international. The PET brought in by waste collectors, for example, is exported to China.

Many of them have also fully understood and integrated environmental arguments. One, called Mustapha, told us in an interview in 2013:

<blockquote>
We contribute to the economy of Morocco. It is thanks to us that this waste is recycled instead of being simply buried or burned. This is our livelihood, it&rsquo;s our survival and it makes our community live
</blockquote>

This wholesaler even tried to create an association for the waste collectors of the Lahraouine district in order to get them officially acknowledged and organised. But so far he has faced indifference or opposition from the authorities.

His failure highlights the perpetual stigma attached to the profession of waste collecting. It also shows their isolation and relegation to the spatial and social margins of the economic capital of Morocco.

Yet, <a href="http://globalrec.org/en/">elsewhere in the world</a>, innovative experiments, mobilisation of reclaiming communities and associations are signs that integration, access to social rights and, more broadly, recognition or informal waste collectors are possible.

<hr />
<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/74878/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" />B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin and Pascal Garret also collaborated for the <a href="http://www.mucem.org/programme/exposition-et-temps-forts/vies-dordures">Vies d&#39;ordures, waste economics exhibition at the Museum of Civilisation of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM, Marseille)</a>, March 22 to August 14 2017.

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/benedicte-florin-348742">B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin</a>, Ma&icirc;tre de conf&eacute;rences, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-francois-rabelais-de-tours-2282">Universit&eacute; Fran&ccedil;ois-Rabelais de Tours</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mustapha-azaitraoui-369200">Mustapha Azaitraoui</a>, Enseignant-chercheur en g&eacute;ographie humaine, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-hassan-ier-3095">Universit&eacute; Hassan Ier</a>

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-small-hands-of-moroccan-recycling-74878">original article</a>.

The small hands of Moroccan recycling A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) www.bab-el-louk.org, CC BY-NC-ND Bénédicte Florin, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Université Hassan Ier This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book What to do with leftovers?

The small hands of Moroccan recycling A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) www.bab-el-louk.org, CC BY-NC-ND Bénédicte Florin, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Université Hassan Ier This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book What to do with leftovers? Re-employment in Accumulation Societies. The photographs by Pascal Garret, sociologist and freelance photographer, who collaborates with social scientists on the theme of waste recovery and recycling. Casablanca, Morocco, summer 2016. With constant heat often above 30°C, garbage can quickly suffocate the four millions inhabitants of this city. But as visitors navigate through the second-largest city of the Maghrebian region, small hands are making sure that large quantities of waste do not pile up on landfills by offering them new life. These men and women belong to populations that anthropologist Delphine Corteel and sociologist Stéphane Le Lay (ERES, 2011) have called “waste workers”. Despite their tremendous and tiring work, they remain excluded from the Moroccan society because of the uncleanliness of their work, and the nature of their living spaces. They live on the margins of legal urban areas, in slums and makeshift houses, which are regularly demolished or threatened by real estate and urban projects. While working in the streets, they are often victims of violence either committed by the authorities or other inhabitants. We conducted interviews with many members of this community from 2011. Our objective was to show that these waste collectors, sorters, semi-wholesalers, recyclers and transporters often consider their work as a real profession and believe that their role is essential, especially given that environmental issues have never been higher on the agenda. According to our multi-site surveys, more than a third of Casablanca’s household waste would escape rejection from landfills. Far from presenting an image of misery and exclusion, we wish to portray this population free from the stigma that usually accompanies activities linked to waste. Overview of one part of a waste recycling area in Casablanca, Lahraouine. In the background, you can see the social housing district of Attacharouk. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015) Situated on the outskirts of Casablanca and in a topographic depression, the Lahraouine district remains virtually invisible from the outside. Most workers live in neighbouring douars (slums) where running water is absent and electricity is supplied by generators or illegal connections. Several real estate projects have put pressure on the city to revamp the district and get rid of its slums. As the waste collectors do not owner their lands and there’s no rehousing project, they live in fear of eviction. A bouar returning from his tour in the outskirts of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) This bouar (the word is derived from the French word éboueur for garbage man) returns from the city with a cart filled with his daily collection. But the increasing number of containers buried in the affluent neighbourhoods of Casablanca reduces access to this waste resource. More often than not, the bouara (plural for bouar) have to limit their work to open bins in working-class neighbourhoods. They are also more tolerated in these areas than in the city’s central districts or middle-upper class areas. In the latter, police can harass them, even arrest them and confiscate their donkeys and carts. Inside view of a gelssa of Lahraouine. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017) The gelssas (a term derived from the verb gels, which means sit down in darija, the language of the Maghreb region) are enclosures of various sizes surrounded by palisades (metal sheets, tarps, boards or dried waste that form a kind of wall) where the bouara centralise their harvest after each city tour. Their collection is sold by weight and consists mainly of cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, fabrics and vegetable waste. Valuable objects, after changing hands several times, will eventually end up in one of the city’s flea markets (joutiya). Nothing that can be used is left behind. A worker sorting waste in a gelssa specialised on plastic materials. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) The bouara of Casablanca can make about €20 daily, but many must rent their equipment (cart and animal) from their bosses for €2. Some gelssas are versatile sorting and recycling sites (plastics, wood, metal, rags), where materials are sorted by type. Others specialise in a particular material, as is the case below for plastic. There is no electricity in the gelssas and this machine is powered by a generator. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017) After collection and sorting, some materials have to be compacted and crushed to take up less space, which adds value. The materials will then be sold to informal sector wholesalers or to the formal sector through pick-ups or trucks sent to carry the waste. Women sorting plastic waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) In Lahraouine, we have not seen many women in the gelssas. Among the 3,000 active waste-recyclers we roughly counted, the majority are young men and we estimated that there were only 500 to 600 women. They are only assigned to sorting tasks. The economic crisis in Morocco has led to an increase of waste workers in Casablanca. The sheds of waste collectors are themselves made with waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015) Waste collectors come, for the most part, from the countryside to escape poverty. Some of them originate from very remote villages in the eastern regions of Casablanca. Many, especially youngsters, come and go according to agricultural cycles. Nearly 19% of Morocco’s agriculturally dependent rural population still lives in poverty or in danger of becoming impoverished. These seasonal workers are hosted by relatives in the douars of Lahraouine or live in sheds inside gelssas. The boss of a gelssa posing with his horse. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015) This boss of a gelssa employs several waste collectors. He owns a few carts pulled by a donkey or a horse, and is a “middle-income earner”. There is a very strong hierarchy in the world of recycling. At the lower level are the simple bouara and women who sort and earn low incomes. At the end of the higher range are the bosses of large gelssas who own one or more trucks and plastic crushers. Gelssas bosses are very familiar with the cost and value of materials on the market and keep themselves updated through the internet or their mobile phones. They know exactly where, to whom and when to sell to get the maximum benefit from their wares. A waste collector at work in the Mediouna dump. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015) Situated about 20 kilometres south of Greater Casablanca, the Mediouna’s landfill receives nearly 3,500 tons of household waste each day, brought in by the trucks of waste-recycling companies. At this site, which should normally mark the end of life for Casablanca’s waste, some 600 illegal waste collectors extract about 1000 tons of materials daily that will be re-injected into the informal and formal recycling circuit. The business of recycling factories and export wholesalers depends heavily on the activities of street collectors or the Mediouna landfill from whom they buy recovered materials at a lower cost. Secondary raw materials produced by the formal sector of the economy are largely derived from the work of these hidden workers. Blurring the borders, this small world of informal workers is thus – directly or indirectly – well inserted in the economic chain on every level: local, regional, national and even international. The PET brought in by waste collectors, for example, is exported to China. Many of them have also fully understood and integrated environmental arguments. One, called Mustapha, told us in an interview in 2013: We contribute to the economy of Morocco. It is thanks to us that this waste is recycled instead of being simply buried or burned. This is our livelihood, it’s our survival and it makes our community live This wholesaler even tried to create an association for the waste collectors of the Lahraouine district in order to get them officially acknowledged and organised. But so far he has faced indifference or opposition from the authorities. His failure highlights the perpetual stigma attached to the profession of waste collecting. It also shows their isolation and relegation to the spatial and social margins of the economic capital of Morocco. Yet, elsewhere in the world, innovative experiments, mobilisation of reclaiming communities and associations are signs that integration, access to social rights and, more broadly, recognition or informal waste collectors are possible. Bénédicte Florin and Pascal Garret also collaborated for the Vies d'ordures, waste economics exhibition at the Museum of Civilisation of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM, Marseille), March 22 to August 14 2017. Bénédicte Florin, Maître de conférences, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Enseignant-chercheur en géographie humaine, Université Hassan Ier This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The small hands of Moroccan recycling

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