The Environmental Education and Recycling Organization (COMPOSTED) is a non‐governmental organization in Cambodia, experienced in waste management, environmental education, behavior change, promoting waste separation at sources and compost recycling implementation together with the local and international partners, relevant stakeholders and local authorities.
In 26 years, COMPOSTED experienced and is conducting various projects on Solid Waste Management. From 1997 till now, COMPOSTED worked deeply on managing organic waste by recycle into compost within the capacity of 5 to 10 ton organic waste per day. Therefore, from 2018 COMPOSTED found that plastics waste increase significantly, affecting the composting process and remaining in the environment as well as in the water source which must be taken action immediately. Consequently, plastic clean-up activity from waste source was born on April 2018 in Battambang, March 2022 in Kampong Cham city, September 2023 in Kratie city and plan to the next municipalities in 2024 in cooperation with the local authorities with the support from One Earth – One Ocean (OEOO) from Germany to collect all plastic waste from Sangke River and Mekong River which will be end up to sea and ocean. There are around 5 ton of waste was collected every month including 3 ton is plastic waste such as plastic bag, plastic cup, fishing net, sack, straw, PET, Styrofoam, car and motor tires, cluttery, PVC pipe. etc. and another 2ton is metal, cardboard, tree branch, coconut and organic waste. Currently, there are only few municipalities where the project is implementing in Cambodia. Therefore, expanding this activity to other cities and districts, especially near the sea area, and implementing it regularly will help reduce the amount of plastic flowing into the sea.
The aim of the COMPOSTED organization is working closely with ministry of environment Cambodia and international organization dealing and improving municipal solid waste management and related environmental projects as in summary below:
- From 1997-2010, it has solely been acknowledged as an NGO rich of experience and well known in promoting urban solid waste recycling (open windrow composting in Phnom Penh) and its quality of work in improving the local challenge in the sector together with local authorities and other stakeholders.
- Experiencing the awareness raising, training workshops, capacity building as well as legal and institutional development were conducted in the frame of EU – Asia Pro Eco project: “Capacity Building and Policy Reinforcement in the Field of Solid Waste Management in Cambodia” 2004 – 2006 and supported in the development of solid waste management guideline in Cambodia; and the two years EU - Asia Pro Eco II project on Concept of wastewater treatment and implementation of a pilot plant in the city of Battambang – CONTRIB has been performed by providing Training workshops, study tours locally and internationally for stakeholders; and Construction of pilot wastewater treatment plant in Battambang city (2007-2008).
- COMPOSTED was assigned for the study research on legal and Institutional framework of solid waste management, current landfill operation, management and planning in Phnom Penh, financial supported by the Asia Foundation in 2014.
- COMPOSTED has been experienced the development of Deika on Waste Management in Battambang supported by KONRAD Cambodia in 2015.
- Under the support from UNIDO project in 2015, COMPOSTED has experience in e-waste survey to support the study on the business model for a manual e-waste dismantling facility in Cambodia Transforming e-waste into job and business opportunities in Cambodia
- In 2016-2019 it worked together with IGES Japan to implement the project on “HOLISTIC NATIONAL AND CITY LEVEL WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY IN CAMBODIA” supported by UNEP to develop a holistic waste management strategy for national level and city level – Phnom Penh focusing on municipal waste, industrial waste, medical waste and hazardous waste (solid waste, wastewater and gaseous waste) and performed a pilot project to promote waste separation at for composting in primary schools Phnom Penh.
- It has also been implementing together with IGES Japan on the policy analysis focused on waste management and disposal in the garment sector as part of the EU SWITCH-Asia Technical Assistance to Cambodia in 2020-2022.
- In the frame of organic waste recycling, from 1997 to 2010, COMPOSTED has an operation of its composting plant of 5T capacity (Phnom Penh)– 20 T capacity (Battambang) organic waste recycling; and has been consulted on the urban landfill operation and management (Stoeng Mean Chey landfill rehabilitation in Phnom Penh) in various cities such as Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Cham, Kampot, Preah Sihanouk and so on. In 2010, it has expanded its solid waste management to Battambang city and operating Centralized Composting Centre to recycling organic waste in Battambang city up to the present by constructing a Social Waste Management Centre next to the city landfill supported by BMZ Germany, promoting waste separation at source in the city up to the present; and subsequently promoting clean organic waste for composting and biogas production supported by IGES Japan and also UNESCAP; conducted rapid city assessment of Battambang Municipality under the CCAC-MSWI in 2014, financial supported by UNEP; technical support for Battambang Municipality to develop Work Plan to reduce SLCPs from Municipal Solid Waste Management in Battambang Municipality by pilot of waste separation at source and stop open burning at landfill in 2015-2016; and the increase of composting capacity with the improved capacity support from UNIDO via MOE Cambodia. Likewise, the awareness raising for the local people and also the local authorities, monks, teachers, students and others to promote waste separation at sources and already built many home composting at community level, households, schools and pagoda in various cities of Cambodia as well.
- In terms of combatting marine plastic and circular economy, COMPOSTED experiences in promoting waste separation at sources and community clean up for plastic bottle construction for replacing the brick construction for the building in Battambang supported Exo-Foundation; also Sangk’e River plastic waste clean up by using Seehamster catamarans supported by One Earth-One Ocean (OEOO) Germany implementing plastic collection in Battambang since 2018 and expanding to other cities such as Kampong Cham starts in 2022 and Kratie city in 2023; 3R-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs (3RproMar) (2022-2024) supported by GIZ, implemented by TAF in partnership with COMPOSTED to be implemented in Kratie City of Cambodia for providing technical and other sectoral expertise, particularly on integrated SWM planning, identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, planning, steering assignments and supporting local and international short-term experts, updating/adapting the project and preparing Solid Waste Management Plan, Koh Trung pilot activity (island) – plastic recycling & informal sector, behavioral change /outreach initiatives, training focus and monitoring focus; and Coca Cola Funded Project to boost PET bottle collection for plastic recycling through the Asia Foundation in Phnom Penh and Battambang city (2023-2024).
- Three years project experience “Solid Waste Accountability Plateform/SWAP” for 2019-2022 in Kampong Cham City, Steung Saen City and Siem Reap City- with TAF cooperated with Triangle Environmental Health Initiative (TEHI) in partnership with DevLab@Duke University funded by USAID to work with private waste collection firms, local stakeholders, and residents to test interventions, including mobile applications, designed to increase accountability and responsiveness in municipal solid waste collection and management in the selected urban areas.
- In the frame of environmental education, a project is supported by Erasmus + Programme of EU focusing on the educational system in waste management sector in 3 Asian Countries in Cambodia (COMPOSTED, Royal University of Agriculture and University of Heng Samrin Tboung Khmum) (2021-2023), Thailand and Vietname in partnership with the EU partners lead by Hamburg University of Technology, Germany in building capacity at tertiary level, as well as in supporting training addressed to the vulnerable group of informal waste practitioners; and improving entrepreneurship and employability of university graduates in the sector of sustainable solid waste management and pave the way to support relevant policies, providing high quality educational products and tools.
- Waste Analysis: since 1997 up to the present, COMPOSTED experienced Conducted more than 20 waste composition analysis and moisture content of municipal solid waste in cities/districts of Cambodia such as Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham, Stoeung Saen, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kratie, Bokor and Ou Reang Ov Cities/districts by the conduction of testing or analysis for the physical characteristics of waste and moisture content for various projects of its partners or projects funded from such as JICA, IGES Japan, UNEP Japan, Kobelco Company, KOICA, SUNJIN Korea, UNESCAP and TAF... and so on.
- Experience from other regions: Moreover, COMPOSTED-WM has obtained rich of solid waste management knowledge from other developed countries like Germany and Japan; and developing countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on urban solid waste management, community-based waste management and 3Rs principle.