Little sign of sustainability work in Cambodia, but a glimmer of hope!

What if all trash could be given a value. Say that any type of plastic has a 5% premium baked in. At the end of this value chain plastic could be collected and given a 5% refund if recycled at a proper center. This would create an army of volunteers looking to earn a few pennies and at the same time doing a world of good.

After spending some time in Sihnoukville, a beach town in southern Cambodia, I can’t say that I can see much sustainability work. Overall, the town has a lot of trash on the sides of the streets, especially near dwellings, and people don’t seem very interested in keeping their surroundings clean. I watched as people, living in what the Western world would consider shacks, let their cattle graze in a field full of litter. I mean, we’re talking more trash than grass. I then watched a man fish for what I assume would be his family’s dinner that evening, in a pond with trash floating in the water and covering the banks. I want to point out here that this dwelling was no less than 100m from a beach that Westerners have starred to exploit; in fact, you have to pass directly through this poverty stricken, littered dwelling to get to the beach, where you’ll find bungalows, beach bars, sun chairs, hammocks, the works. And guess what else you find here…trash. The ads don’t tell you that you actually have jump over a line of trash to get to the water. After a few days of seeing this same thing throughout Sihnoukville (and the country side), I realized this may be because most people are busy fighting for their daily bread. Recycling comes in second place. However, there are some people collecting anything of value on the streets, like glass bottles and cans. Plastic bags, bottles and other unusable plastics are left behind on the side of the road or in a pile next to their home. This made me wonder about the incentives for keeping clean.

Humans, being simple in nature, work for their basic needs in respectful order, at least I do. First comes food, then water, shelter and so on. Properly disposing one’s trash doesn’t rank highly in this hierarchy. So, what if all the littered items had a value, a built­-in value. Metals and cans have a given value for recycling use. What if all the other trash could be given a value too? Say that any type of plastic has a 5% premium baked in. At the end of this value chain plastic could be collected and given a 5% refund if recycled at a proper center. This would create an army of volunteers looking to earn a few pennies and at the same time doing a world of good. Anyone heard of a city or country with something similar implemented?

Another fun picture I took was along the “highway/road” between Thailand and Cambodia where we stopped at a road house that offered drinks, fresh fruit and simple local food. At their house they had chickens, dogs, cats and cows walking around freely. The locals had collected the waste from the fruit and vegetables, which was greatly appreciated by the cows who ate this as their after dinner snack. Talk about full circle.

At the same stop they also had a gas station, but they didn’t only offer gas. The cars that pulled in when I was there all went for natural gas. I haven’t done any research on this, so if anyone knows the environmental effects, fill us in. Is it friendlier then gasoline and diesel? How is it produced in this part of the world?