UM6P Discovers the Long Reach of Plastic Pollution from the Heart of the High Atlas

Mount Toubkal in the Moroccan High Atlas is the highest peak in North Africa. To a team of researchers from University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, it was also a 4,167-meter-long scientific instrument.

By systematically analyzing soil from its base to its summit, they have produced a clear, data-rich snapshot of how human-made materials travel and settle in one of the continent’s most remote environments. Their work offers a rare replicable model for environmental science.

The study, led by Dr. Mohamed Idbella of UM6P’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, was designed with the specific goal to move past the simple confirmation of pollution and into the mechanics of its distribution and impact.