"Zero Mika" - Creates Blackmarket in Plastic Bags

Morocco's move to ban plastic bags was initially hailed as a success. However, as plastic bags became scarce, a blackmarket sprung up. At first it was people taking rubbish bags in the street and emptying the contents before washing the bags and selling them. Now it has become as bigger business, with smugglers importing tons of plastic bags

Customs police bag some illegal plastic

In Marrakech, a large quantity of plastic bags were seized. As one local paper put it, "The law of zero Mika seems to have been compromised by smugglers".

After illegal plastic bags were found in Nador and Oujda, now twelve tons of plastic bags have been seized by the local authorities in Marrakech. The operation "zero Mika" (zero plastic bags) seems to be "threatened by the smugglers, " reported the daily newspaper, Al Massae.

On Tuesday local authorities, in coordination with the services of the Marrakech Prefecture, discovered three truckloads of plastic bags stationed in the Bab Ksiba Park, in the Kasbah district of the old medina. The bags, transported from Casablanca, were intended to be sold in the local markets.

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