MOROCCO – Best Health, a national operator working in the field of medical and surgical equipment distribution, has taken a majority stake in Saiss Environnement.
Saiss Environnement is a company specializing in the collection, management, and treatment of medical and pharmaceutical waste.
The acquisition is part of its sustainable development strategy and will enable Best Health to provide appropriate medical and pharmaceutical waste management solutions to health professionals in Morocco.
The targeted institutions include hospitals, analysis laboratories, doctors, and veterinarians. For Best Health, the choice of Saïss Environnement is not accidental.
Saiss Environnement, located in Meknes, Morocco, was the first to offer medical waste treatment services in the kingdom (since 2004).
The company has so far absorbed 34% of medical waste, out of the 22 000 tonnes produced each year in Morocco. This includes gloves, masks, gowns, syringes, among other wastes.
If not properly managed, medical waste, especially chemical waste, poses risks of air, water, and soil pollution and exposes humans and other plants to harmful effects.
Best Health’s project supports the Moroccan government’s policy to make medical waste inert and safe by eliminating microbiological risks. Moroccan regulations require producers of such waste to sort and process it in approved facilities.
The acquisition is in line with the Moroccan government to build a medical waste treatment plant that has been in the pipeline since 2019.
The project will be implemented by a joint venture between Veos, a Moroccan subsidiary of Veolia, and SOS NDD, a company based in Casablanca.
The government of Morocco has adopted restrictive measures in the cities to reduce pollution from medical waste and manage those produced by medical institutions.
In 2022, the Casablanca City Council decided to strictly enforce Law No. 28-00, on waste management and disposal, which stipulates that anyone living in the city who dumps their waste, including medical waste, outside of designated areas, risks paying a fine ranging from 200 to 10,000 Moroccan dirhams (18 to 931 euros).
If the hazardous waste is mixed with other types of waste, the fine ranges from 100,000 to 2,000,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$10,319.47to US$20,638.93), with a possible prison sentence of three months to two years.
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