New Greenpeace MENA Report Calculates Potential Net Economic Cost of Plastic Pollution in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia

Beirut / PNN /

Plastic pollution is costing Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia between US$1.7 billion and US$5.5 billion every year in net terms, according to a new report by Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa (MENA). If current plastic trends continue, the report projects the cumulative cost of inaction could cost the three North African countries US$30 billion to US$98 billion by 2040.

The report, Counting the Cost of Plastic Pollution in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia , is released just days before heads of delegations gather in Bangkok from 27 to 30 September for a critical meeting on the Global Plastics Treaty, ahead of the next formal round of negotiations expected in March 2027. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia will be among the delegations in the room. The treaty presents an important opportunity for these countries to push for ambitious global action to reduce plastic production and protect their economies, communities and environments from the growing costs of plastic pollution.

Farah Al Hattab, Lead Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace MENA, stated:

“For years, plastic pollution has been framed as a waste management problem. Our new report reveals a different facet of the problem: plastic pollution is costing the economies of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia billions of dollars. Governments, municipalities, coastal communities and the people are already paying the price of inaction in the face of plastic pollution. And with every year of delay, the economic and health cost rises.

The report calculates the cost for each country. These costs are being paid now, mostly by public budgets:

The cost of inaction to Egypt is US$740 million to US$3.1 billion a year, and that figure reflects only the cost to marine ecosystems, and does not account for the additional health costs associated with plastic pollution. Egypt carries the largest measured plastic burden in the Mediterranean and the region's highest respiratory disease burden. Egypt’s petrochemical sector is reported at about US$8.6 billion in revenue in 2024, close to 2% of GDP and about 12% of industrial production, with 4.5 million tonnes of petrochemicals produced in 2024 and about US$7 billion of further investment planned over 4 years. However, this figure covers the petrochemical sector as a whole rather than plastics alone, and reflects gross revenue rather than value added, and does not show how much value is retained within the Egyptian economy.

Morocco carries an estimated US$1.2 billion a year in Mediterranean plastic damage, a conservative estimate that excludes its Atlantic coast, while its plastics industry imports 70% of its inputs and exports 9% of its output. This highlights a fundamental imbalance: the benefits of continued plastic production are not fully captured within Morocco, while the country is left to absorb a significant share of the environmental and economic costs. Fifteen years of bag regulation, alongside a conversion fund that protected 3,840 jobs, have helped Morocco build a strong record on reducing plastic bag use. Yet despite these positive legislative measures, Morocco continues to bear the costs of a problem it did not create. Internationally, Morocco is well placed to champion production reduction in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations.

Tunisia carries a cost of about US$400 million a year. Tunisia also has the clearest case for acting, it runs the best-performing waste system of the three countries, lives almost entirely on its coast, and has no plastic production to protect. Its interest in reducing plastic, nationally and globally in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, is the most direct of any country in this study.

These costs are borne by these countries because of a problem they did not create: they are importing petrochemicals with little to no economic benefit to them. This is why global production reduction measures would not harm these countries; on the contrary, such measures would serve their economic interests. Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt have an opportunity to protect their interests by advocating for global production reduction measures in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations. The upcoming Heads of Delegation meeting presents a valuable opportunity to advance this position ahead of the formal negotiating session in March. For all three countries, delaying action is currently the most expensive option on the table.”, Al Hattab concluded.