Hello again, this time from another small site in my region! The eight of us from my cohort who live down here in the south decided to put together a regional iftar dinner, as Ramadan is going to end at some point this week. It’s been great to see everyone and cook some food together.
Because Ramadan is dependent on the lunar calendar, it doesn’t officially end until the crescent moon is officially spotted. The way in which this is determined varies among Islamic countries, but in Morocco, the Moroccan government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs has a “network of specialized committees” and utilizes 270 observation points across Morocco to officially spot the crescent moon while double checking with astronomical calculations. Muslims outside of Islamic countries tend to rely on the projections from Saudi Arabia, due to Mecca’s religious importance.
In other words, a bunch of people throughout Morocco, in tandem with some math, officially declare the beginning and end of the months in the lunar calendar. There is also a big emphasis in Morocco that the moon must be spotted with the naked eye— the start of Ramadan was actually delayed a day this year in Morocco because of cloudy weather. Other countries rely more on computations, but Morocco definitely prides itself on its moon-sighting system. This article explains everything way better than I can if you’re curious to learn more.
When the Moroccan government makes the announcement for when Ramadan will officially end, there is a 3-day celebration called Eid-al-Fitr. This is a time for lots of food and spending time with loved ones and relatives. Eid-al-Fitr commemorates the end of Ramadan and is very important religiously, but Eid-al-Adha, which is happening sometime in June, is even more important and is known as “greater Eid.” Eid simply means feast or celebration, and you may have heard the phrase Eid Mubarak, which just means “Happy Eid!”
This week, a New York Times article piqued my interest about plastic waste from produce production, and it got me thinking about the differences between the US and Morocco in terms of food waste and garbage in general.
In rural Morocco, just about everybody buys their produce from the weekly souk. As I’ve discussed previously on this blog, families will come home with huge amounts of produce every week. There are also a couple smaller produce sellers at my site that I’ve been frequenting more recently because I’ve noticed they’re more precise on pricing and will weigh everything individually—the European tourism at my site has caused me to get ripped off at the souk quite a bit. More on that another week.
However, despite families buying massive quantities of produce, I’ve noticed that more of it goes to waste than I initially expected. I think this is because produce is very cheap, especially compared to meat, so it’s not a huge loss if a potato or an onion gets thrown out. On the other hand, when my host family made something with meat, there was generally nothing left but bones.
Another reason I think produce is thrown away is inconsistent quality. I’ve had some of the best produce I’ve ever had in Morocco, but I think this is because I’m very choosy with what I pick out from a pile of produce. From what I’ve noticed, Moroccans shop more indiscriminately and as a result, come home with a lot of duds, which end up being thrown away. That all being said, I think Moroccans produce a lot less food waste than the average American in relative terms.
The trash situation in Morocco varies greatly from town to town, but overall I’ve noticed it’s significantly less regulated than in the United States. Most people have a small, covered trash bucket in the kitchen. Some people use bags, but others do not and just wash out the trash bucket every week. My site has large dumpsters in somewhat central locations where people dump their trash. I produce about one small bag each week and just toss it in, no questions asked.
Despite the dumpsters, however, a lot of random trash bags will end up on street corners, and a lot of loose trash ends up on the various dirt roads and in the massive dirt patch in the middle of town. My site does have a municipal cleaning service—which I think is common for larger communities—and they work very hard to keep public areas like parks and downtown clean and empty the dumpsters. That all being said, there is definitely a much more lax culture around littering and trash in general compared to the United States.
My friend’s site—which is much more rural than my own—doesn’t have any dumpsters, so most people have a hole in the ground or a spot in their yard where non-food waste ends up, and then once a month a group of people will gather it all together in a designated area and burn it. Afterwards, families that own goats let them loose in what’s left. All food waste ends up with barn animals—my friend just gives hers to her neighbors, who take care of it from there.
Something that we have to be conscious of as foreigners, particularly for my friends in much smaller communities, is that locals have a tendency to rummage through non-food waste trash. This is consistent with what I’ve dubbed the “culture of curiosity” around foreigners—something that may seem very bizarre to an untrained American eye, but upon further inquiry, is just a manifestation of locals’ curiosity.
For example, the same friend was standing in her neighbor’s kitchen one day, only to be asked about an empty American deodorant container that the neighbor had found in my friend’s trash pit. The neighbor was just curious if it was face wash and was very upfront that it was from my friend’s trash. While the intentions were ultimately harmless, this is one of those situations that can sometimes create awkward feelings and brings to light a stark cultural difference. The same thing happened with an empty Pringles container.
Another thing to note is that there is no recycling here. At first, I forgot about this and instinctively threw an empty can of tomato paste in my sink to wash out so it was clean, but then I remembered that doing that was absolutely pointless. This will definitely be something I will have to readjust to upon my return. Most of my trash is food waste—potato peels, cantaloupe rinds, etc. I wish I could compost more easily, but being in a more urban situation, there aren’t any farm animals I can feed. Oh well.
Because of the lack of recycling, I’ve also started doing what a lot of Moroccan households do: reusing certain containers as Tupperware. There is a small pile amassing in my cabinet, and to be honest, the extra stash has come in handy more than a few times. Does it look like the beginnings of hoarding? Maybe. Homemade pickled onions in an old Nescafe instant coffee jar admittedly creates a weird aesthetic.
Overall I’d say there is some cognitive dissonance regarding the trash culture in Morocco, but the culture is starting to change, especially among young folks toward protecting the environment here, which is good because sometimes public space here can be treated as somewhat of a dumping ground. However, in the meantime, I just wanted to point out some of the similarities and differences between the two countries in regards to trash and food waste. As always, more to come!
Anna Weber 