The challenge: Limited waste management infrastructure in Cambodia’s coastal cities
Sihanoukville was once a small fishing village. Today, rapid urbanization and growing tourism are driving waste volumes to new heights, while municipal collection capacities remain limited. As a result, more and more communities are struggling to keep pace with the increasing amount of waste generated.
Informal waste collectors play a crucial role in collecting and recycling plastic waste, with women making up the majority of this workforce. Their contribution to environmental protection is invaluable, yet they often face unsafe working conditions, limited economic opportunities, social stigmatization, and minimal access to social protection.
The solution: The Cambodia Plastic Circularity Project
Together with the Cambodia Plastic Circularity Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF), we are working on a sustainable and long-term solution on the ground. The project implements inclusive approaches to build a functioning circular economy by combining household-level waste management with community engagement, while strengthening awareness of waste segregation among local residents.
A key focus of the project is the empowerment of informal waste collectors. They play a critical, yet often invisible, role in addressing plastic pollution. Their work helps recover valuable materials that would otherwise pollute ecosystems and threaten local livelihoods.
The programme also follows a gender-responsive approach, aiming to ensure that female informal waste collectors have equal access to opportunities, resources, and capacity-building initiatives.
A holistic approach: The project's four pillars
The project addresses plastic pollution through four key pillars:
Environmental Protection: Reducing plastic waste in waterways, oceans, and illegal dumpsites through improved waste segregation and safe household-level waste management.
Social Inclusion: Empowering women, vulnerable households, and informal waste collectors, with a target of achieving at least 50% female participation across all project activities.
Empowering Informal Waste Collectors: Providing training opportunities, improving working conditions, reducing occupational risks, establishing peer-learning networks, and creating new income opportunities.
Community Empowerment: Raising awareness of the 4Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and plastic waste management to foster collective responsibility, drive long-term behavioral change, and reduce the stigmatization of informal waste collectors.
Through this approach, we strengthen local communities and build resilient waste management systems that help stop plastic pollution at its source, preventing waste from entering rivers and oceans in the first place.