In a country where economic growth has stagnated around 1.4% of GDP, where the bill for energy and raw material imports weighs heavily on budgetary balances, and where waste management remains one of the blind spots of public policy, the circular economy asserts itself with an irrefutable logic.
To break away from the linear model of “produce, consume, throw away” and replace it with a virtuous loop in which resources are reused, waste is valorized, and industrial processes are redesigned from the outset: this is the horizon that Tunisia is beginning, timidly but resolutely, to make its own.
Between new institutional initiatives, projects carried by international partners, and the emergence of green entrepreneurship, the state of play is that of a country in transition, whose gains remain fragile and whose structural obstacles are considerable.
An environmental urgency that forces action
The figures of Tunisian environmental degradation measure the urgency. In 2021, the country produced about 2.5 million tonnes of solid waste, of which less than 10% were recycled.
The World Bank, in its report on waste management in North Africa and the Middle East, makes an unequivocal assessment: the volume of municipal solid waste generated is expected to rise from 3 million tonnes in 2022 to 6 million tonnes by 2050, and annual sector expenditures, which were $141 million in 2022, would have to reach $498 million by that horizon, with each Tunisian producing on average 0.80 kg of waste per day.
In addition to this material waste, there is a significant economic cost: according to a World Bank study, the transition to a circular economy could generate up to $4.5 billion in annual savings for Tunisia by 2030. These potential savings constitute the strongest economic argument in favor of a transformation that some still perceive as a luxury reserved for rich countries.
Institutional initiatives taking shape
For a long time, Tunisia’s circular economy was more about rhetoric than concrete action. This picture has begun to change. The Tunisian Ministry of Environment announced, on March 3, 2026, the official launch of a funding line dedicated to projects in the green, blue, and circular economy, endowed with 20 million dinars drawn from the Pollution Control Fund, with ten banks having signed agreements to operationalize this one-stop window.
