There are young Moroccans who are enterprising, inventive and aware of environmental issues. Hassan El Hemer is one of them. This Berber who lives 45 minutes from the Garden of Stars has created two innovative products for Morocco. On the one hand, it is a green charcoal which replaces charcoal and on the other hand a charcoal called “biochar”, which is used as fertilizer fertilizer.
Holder of a license in management from the Ibn Zohr University of Agadir, Hassan El Hemer remembers that his commitment to the protection of the environment dates from his childhood, spent in his village of Ghzala.
He tells huffpostmaghreb.com that he saw locals burning organic waste, like leftover tomatoes and peppers, without any strategy. Hence his idea of finding a way to recover this waste.
Recycled agricultural waste
Hassan EL Hemer created his two types of charcoal briquette with end-of-season waste from plants in greenhouses, very numerous around his village. He therefore uses the remains of peppers, tomatoes, beans and the biomass of clementines, peaches and raspberries.
This recycling takes place to the satisfaction of farmers. Due to lack of space, this organic waste was previously burned. The method developed by the young Berber thus removes the resulting air pollution.
For its inventor, organic charcoal is cheaper, since it is made from agricultural waste, and also less polluting. According to him, green charcoal that replaces charcoal is more efficient. A smaller quantity is indeed needed for the same result.
Help and stakeholders
Hassan El Hemer presented his project to a start-up incubator. Encouraging green energies, Solar Cluster, affiliated to MASEN (Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy), gave him the benefit of ad hoc training. He also allocated the necessary funding to make his idea a reality.
Several people are already interested in the biochar project, including the Dutch reforestation association Justdiggit. According to huffpostmaghreb.com, it bought the product to cope with the drought that hampers the growth of olive trees in the Marrakech region.
Hassan El Hemer is looking for new funding and wants to start his own business. The COP22 (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) which will take place in November in Marrakech will be an opportunity to offer green charcoal to restaurants and hotels in this city.
Le Jardin aux Etoiles has already declared its interest in organic charcoal to boost its crops, as soon as our ecological option was implemented and deserves to be extended and intensified. A visit of Hassan El Hemer to Sidi Boumoussa is scheduled.
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